The EU, Military and economic development

[mindlight]

The European nations of the EU and including the UK which is allied to it face new threats.

1) A hostile and self- centered USA intent on reshaping the world order to allow it to retreat into its own isolationist bubble in North America. A reassertion of the Monroe doctrine and a rejection of the responsibilities and costs of being a global policeman.

2) Competition from a China fueled by cheap Russian resources, with buying power to secure market control around the world and a 300 year plan to grow their countries economy and influence.

3) The territorial ambitions of Russia on its borders. The cost of the Ukraine war.

4) The coordinated propaganda efforts of the USA, Russia and China to undermine the EU and any integrity to European resistance to their plans for a multipolar and nondemocratic world order.

5) A crisis of identity in Europe's youth that is undermining the confidence to look outward and deal with the world as it is rather than according to the comfortable cliquey prejudices of parochial nationalisms

What can be done to confront these trends? How can Europe remilitarize without destroying it's economy, reclaim ascendency in high end technologies, find the resources to fuel economic growth and combat the insidious propaganda of it's rivals? Is the alliance with the USA dead or just on hold until Trump is gone?

 

[Vambram]

) A hostile and self- centered USA

Not factual.

 

[Vambram]

4) The coordinated propaganda efforts of the USA, Russia and China to undermine the EU and any integrity to European resistance to their plans for a multipolar and nondemocratic world order.

The USA is absolutely NOT anywhere close to being a part of any effort for a non-democratic world order.

 

[mindlight]

Not factual.

Maybe you are not familiar with your presidents proclamations. Trump hates the EU, Musk supports anti EU parties like the AFD.. The reaffirmation of the Monroe doctrine, parochial nationalism, undermining NATO have all been features of his policy

Trump wants to destroy the EU — and rebuild it in his image

Donald Trump won’t deal with the EU. The EU can’t deal with Trump.

www.politico.eu

 

[mindlight]

The USA is absolutely NOT anywhere close to being a part of any effort for a non-democratic world order.

The USA may well remain a democracy but it's foreign policy regarding the EU is aligned with it's two greatest rivals

 

[Vambram]

Maybe you are not familiar with your presidents proclamations. Trump hates the EU, Musk supports anti EU parties like the AFD.. The reaffirmation of the Monroe doctrine, parochial nationalism, undermining NATO have all been features of his policy

Trump wants to destroy the EU — and rebuild it in his image

Donald Trump won’t deal with the EU. The EU can’t deal with Trump.

www.politico.eu

Trump doesn't hate the EU. To suggest otherwise is nothing more than hyperbolic exaggeration, in my opinion.

 

[Vambram]

The USA may well remain a democracy but it's foreign policy regarding the EU is aligned with it's two greatest rivals

That is absolutely NOT true at all. I believe that you've been listening too much to the globalists and the left wing liberal crowd that wants to blame everything bad in the world upon President Trump and the USA.

 

[Maria Billingsley]

just on hold until Trump is gone?

Here is your answer.

 

[mindlight]

Trump doesn't hate the EU. To suggest otherwise is nothing more than hyperbolic exaggeration, in my opinion.

I do not think you understand his strategy then. His plan is to split up the EU so that he can make easier deals with member states that would no longer be able to operate as a block. He regards the EU as a major block for a good deal (by that I mean one heavily weighted to the US's advantage).

Trump does not value an alliance with Europe, underestimates or ignores Russian ambition and is actively undermining the NATO alliance by suggesting that the USA will not honor its treaty obligations with underpaying NATO states.

 

[mindlight]

That is absolutely NOT true at all. I believe that you've been listening too much to the globalists and the left wing liberal crowd that wants to blame everything bad in the world upon President Trump and the USA.

China and Russia are actively pursuing a policy designed to split up NATO and to weaken or divide the EU and this is Trump's de facto policy also. There is no longer a guarantee that the USA would honor article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty.

China Wants to ‘Divide and Conquer’ Europe

Why Xi Jinping is visiting France, Serbia, and Hungary this week.

foreignpolicy.com

Russia will not stop at Ukraine. NATO cannot let this happen

Russia wants to keep NATO solely focused on the developments in Ukraine, making us oblivious to his imperialist plans elsewhere, Matas Maldeikis writes. #EuropeDecoded

www.euronews.com

‘Trump is abandoning Ukraine and wants a weaker EU’: Dominique de Villepin on Europe’s moment of truth

The former French PM says the US is no longer an ally of Europe – but has joined Russia and China as an ‘illiberal superpower’

www.theguardian.com

 

[mindlight]

Here is your answer.

We are natural partners but not when the USA acts with the disrespect and contempt for values and treaties that Trump has shown.

 

[Vambram]

I do not think you understand his strategy then. His plan is to split up the EU so that he can make easier deals with member states that would no longer be able to operate as a block. He regards the EU as a major block for a good deal (by that I mean one heavily weighted to the US's advantage).

Trump does not value an alliance with Europe, underestimates or ignores Russian ambition and is actively undermining the NATO alliance by suggesting that the USA will not honor its treaty obligations with underpaying NATO states.

I understand Trump's plan and I know that he does indeed value an alliance with Europe. However, the USA no longer wants the EU to have the advantage over America on economic & trade policies. Also, when it comes to NATO, please don't confuse Trump's rhetoric with real actions and deeds from the USA Pentagon, the Secretary of Defense, and also the President of the United States himself.

 

[Richard T]

I just want to add that Trump is not following the Monroe Doctrine. Just look at him go after Greenland. He simply wants America first, and then he defines what that is. Less immigrants, less foreign entanglements, more territory, more resources, more money, more benefits to America.

 

[mindlight]

I just want to add that Trump is not following the Monroe Doctrine. Just look at him go after Greenland. He simply wants America first, and then he defines what that is. Less immigrants, less foreign entanglements, more territory, more resources, more money, more benefits to America.

The Monroe doctrine protected the whole of the Americas from Imperial European involvement. So different times and agendas but it has become synonymous with isolationism which is the Trumpian rhetoric and the current inclination of the Republican party. One would hope that sounder voices would prevail in the military in a conflict or will Trump simply fire such people as time passes? The uncertainty fuels the fires of speculation.

 

[Richard T]

The Monroe doctrine protected the whole of the Americas from Imperial European involvement. So different times and agendas but it has become synonymous with isolationism which is the Trumpian rhetoric and the current inclination of the Republican party. One would hope that sounder voices would prevail in the military in a conflict or will Trump simply fire such people as time passes? The uncertainty fuels the fires of speculation.

Is it isolationism to want to take Greenland or remake Palestine, suggest Ukraine cede territory, or ask that other allies build up their militaries more? That is not isolationism as it leans to imperialism.

 

[mindlight]

I understand Trump's plan and I know that he does indeed value an alliance with Europe. However, the USA no longer wants the EU to have the advantage over America on economic & trade policies. Also, when it comes to NATO, please don't confuse Trump's rhetoric with real actions and deeds from the USA Pentagon, the Secretary of Defense, and also the President of the United States himself.

A great part of the trade deficit comes from American manufacturers thinking too parochially. The world prefers German cars because they have quality but also fuel efficiency for example. A lot of American manufacturers just do not understand the global market. You cannot force people to buy rubbish products or oversized SUVs in a market where gas is 6 dollars a gallon. Similarly the American health sector is often uncompetitive on basic pricing. TESLAs are cool but cost too much and people here will buy Volkswagens on a budget. This policy of sanctions just puts peoples backs up and excludes American products even more. Trump is trying to force something which is just not natural at grass roots.

America would be shooting themselves in the foot if they sabotage NATO but Trumps rhetoric is toxic right now. It emboldens our shared enemies and sabotages trust.

 

[mindlight]

Is it isolationism to want to take Greenland or remake Palestine, suggest Ukraine cede territory, or ask that other allies build up their militaries more? That is not isolationism as it leans to imperialism.

Monroe doctrine isolationism was characterized by a preoccupation with the Americas. Both Canada and Greenland are near neighbors on the US continent and in combination allow America to retreat into a security and resources bubble that is self sufficient in theory (well it isn't but that is the theory). So that is an isolationist vision. The relationship with Israel also has more to do with internal American politics than any consideration of the rest of the world. Five eyes countries speak English and the cultural links are stronger with the USA.

Getting Ukraine to cede land is probably the only way a peace is going to occur in my view and I do not oppose that in principle. But Trump's motives here are to rush a deal through so that he can disengage, cut his costs and avoid any escalation of a war he never wanted to fight. The problem is that Putin knows Trump does not have a dog in this fight and does not have the hunger to see it through and so he insists on a higher price for peace than he would get from a natural outcome in this war. Ultimately Europe needs to step up here. America needs to maintain its security guarantees and support the European takeover of the theatre, this will take time. In this way Putin knows he will not get an easy win unless he comes to terms and that even if there will never be American boots on the ground Europe will ultimately develop an effective enough presence to stop Russia in its tracks. When that is clear to Putin the continuance of a war of attrition that is bleeding his nation dry of some of its best young men and thereby weakening Russia permanently is no longer so attractive.

The problem is Trump wants a solution now but the real solution will take longer or at least requires a commitment to that longer term.

 

[Nithavela]

Is the alliance with the USA dead or just on hold until Trump is gone?

On hold? No. We put it on hold during Trump's first term, and look where that got us. We need to become strong enough that we can be an equal partner or rival to the USA, whatever serves us better, instead of being a pseudo-vassal.

 

[mindlight]

On hold? No. We put it on hold during Trump's first term, and look where that got us. We need to become strong enough that we can be an equal partner or rival to the USA, whatever serves us better, instead of being a pseudo-vassal.

This seems to be the strategy of the big three powers in Europe - Germany, France and the UK though each has a different slant to their response.

The Germans are waking up to their weakness and also neglected responsibilities and are truly shocked by Trumps threats over NATO and Ukraine.

The French see an opportunity to trade their nuclear capability for increased influence in Europe and an expansion of their own vision for the EU that includes military cooperation.

The British are most bound to the USA, but want to support Ukraine regardless, and see an opportunity to trade their military capabilities for greater post BREXIT access to European markets. All see the need for deeper cooperation and take the Russian threat more seriously than does Trump.

 

[mindlight]

It looks like the new German Chancellor has managed to secure a deal for infrastructure and defence investment allowing for large increases in spending in both areas

Germany is back, says Merz after historic deal on defence and spending

Germany's conservative leader clinches an major financial agreement ahead of a crunch vote in parliament.

www.bbc.com