Europe’s Dilemma

Europe may be the best place in the world to live, with an unmatched level of rights and freedoms. The stream of immigrants trying to build better lives there is offered as evidence. Yet the continent is losing appeal. Britain has left the European Union, and Iceland has even stopped discussing possible membership.

The queue of candidate countries remains long, but the article notes that all are potential recipients of European Union funds once admitted. At the same time, circumstances are turning against the continental club. The United States treats Europe as an underperforming dependent and threatens to withdraw the military umbrella that supports NATO at its most difficult moment.

Russia’s challenge to the alliance is becoming more visible through cyberattacks, other forms of hybrid warfare and open territorial incursions. The occupation of Ukraine has already forced neighboring countries to fortify their shared borders. Economic sanctions, the column argues, have barely affected the Kremlin leader, who sees an opportunity.

The United States is suffering a persistent shortage in its arsenals because its defense industry cannot replace weapons fired in what the article calls Trump’s reckless wars. Europe has also reduced its armies and military spending for decades, having delegated its security to U.S. bases spread across the continent. That calculation has changed as troop numbers have fallen and Donald Trump’s hostility toward Europe has grown. There is no guarantee that the United States would help if Russia attacked.

The bigger question may be how much solidarity the other NATO members would show. The treaty requires a joint response if one member is attacked, a prospect the article says cannot be dismissed for the first time since the Cold War. European society, however, has grown accustomed to decades of peace and prosperity under U.S. protection. It may have to give that comfort up to aid an ally in danger. Russia, by contrast, is presented as drawing on soldiers, whether volunteers or conscripts, who go to the front under Stalin’s maxim that the tragedy of one death becomes a statistic when millions sacrifice themselves.