The West Is in Disarray |
The past year has demonstrated a notable decline in the influence of Western civilization. Discord in the actions of the United States and the European Union is felt across various domains and has manifested with particular intensity regarding the Ukraine conflict.
However, the most striking evidence of the split within what we are accustomed to calling the West has been the Greenland issue. President Trump clearly stated his desire to annex the world’s largest island, currently a colony of the Kingdom of Denmark. European capitals were unsure how to respond to the US president’s new “initiative,” as they were accustomed to fully relying on Washington and following its policy closely. The shock from the White House’s demands was so profound that they could not formulate a coherent position. It was impossible both to avoid angering Trump and to assert any semblance of policy independence. For Europeans, the idea of a military seizure of Greenland did not sound like empty threats but rather like a retrograde worldview now backed by American might. As the Washington Post writes, “Power over process, leverage over law, loyalty contingent on utility,” and now the US is the “guarantor of European security, undermining European security.”
Recently, European Commissioner for Defense and Space Andrius Kubilius stated that America’s military seizure of Greenland would mean the end of the NATO bloc.
A Turkish newspaper (Türkiye is a NATO member) noted that Trump is undermining global norms, turning diplomacy into unbridled imperialism driven by self-interest.
The Jerusalem Post concluded on January 8 that we are witnessing the collapse of Western Europe in real time. Europeans were particularly frightened by the thesis put forward by Trump’s close advisor, Deputy Chief of Staff, Stephen Miller, who said that we live in a real world that is ruled by force, which........