Tipping point for US-Europe geopolitical relations
image: Christian Lue on Unsplash
On a visit to Greenland, US Vice President Vance criticised Denmark. Trump had previously distanced himself from Europe. Luuk van Middelaar, Professor of Foundations and Practice of the European Union and its Institutions, commented on the situation in 'Nieuwsuur’.
Van Middelaar, who also founded the Brussels Institute of Geopolitics, warns that ‘Trump is pulling the carpet from under the world’s feet.’ The era when the US was a reliable ally of Europe seems to have come to an end and with it our security and other valuable connections. It is time for Europe to set its own course and to act independently on geopolitical issues.
The professor argues that ‘Putin put an end to the world as we’ve known it since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, but Trump is going even further.’ He is the first US president in a long time to openly exercise imperialism towards its neighbours, including Mexico, Canada, Panama and even Greenland. The Monroe Doctrine, by which the US had usurped the right, early in the 19th century, to intervene in the entire North and South American continent when national interests were threatened, seems once again relevant.
The decisions of one individual leader – in this case the US president – could greatly influence the course of the world order and the stability of democratic values. Van Middelaar therefore questions the extent to which Europe can independently carry and protect the legacy of democracy, enlightenment and human rights when such counterforces exist. He sees the next five to ten years as a crucial tipping point.
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Watch the Nieuwsuur broadcast (in Dutch)