The world is “made up of herbivores and carnivores”, French President Emmanuel Macron said in a speech this month. Europe, he said, was a plant-eater. And the meat-eaters are circling.

Until now, most Western nations have been content to live peaceful lives with minimal military capability because the biggest of them has offered to protect the others by maintaining a war-like vigilance. That, of course, was the US.

Illustration by Dionne Gain

Under the eagle’s wing, post-war Europe and Japan became so relaxed that they adopted a pacifist stance. They relinquished any effective offensive combat capability to the point where they were declared to be the world’s first “postmodern” states, together with New Zealand, which sheltered behind Australia, in the categorisation by the British diplomat Robert Cooper. These pacifists were full herbivores.

But almost all Western democracies, including Australia and Canada, also allowed themselves to stand down. Their statecraft and their defence forces operated on the assumption that war between the great powers was an artefact of history and if anything went wrong, America would deal with it. “People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf,” according to a quote attributed to George Orwell. America was the rough man of the West.

The West’s enemies fell into a sullen survival mode. But they did not lose their appetites for the red meat of history – the urge to attack, butcher and digest the territories of their neighbours.

That era is over. America’s will has wilted and its enemies........

© Brisbane Times