Is America still a friend to Europe? Or even a potential foe? That’s a question being asked across Europe as Trump threatens to annex Greenland, and shrugs off international law. Tensions between America and Europe have only increased in the past few years. The Munich Security Conference has become a bully pulpit for JD Vance to push around the soft Europeans, whilst Trump has openly speculated about withdrawing US defence support from the continent (check this). Likewise, in the case of the Ukraine conflict, America has shown itself willing to trade away European territory to Russia if it thinks it can profit thereby.
But what if all of this, from the tough love to the ruthless power politics, was fundamentally good for Europe?
To frame these as positives is not to exonerate Trump, or hail him as any sort of strategic genius. Denmark is not only a close NATO ally, but one that committed substantial manpower to some of the darkest and bloodiest chapters of the War on Terror, with Danish special forces joining the British in brutal fights against the Taliban in Helmand province. Much of what Trump wants in Greenland, from greater security to more economic opportunities for US business in the Arctic, he could readily get through diplomatic channels. Resorting to threats and bullying at the first juncture against an ally is not just wrong, it is also stupid and pointless.
All this aside, the effect on Europe, as with the invasion of Ukraine, may yet be salutary. Trump’s clear message that the continent cannot count on America, or assume that its interests will be eternally aligned with Europe’s, is one we desperately need to hear.
His iconoclasm and irreverence have forced any number of issues that should have been confronted long ago
Trump cannot be defended as a man of virtue, wisdom or even machiavellian genius. Yet he should be seen as a man of history — someone who catalyses the shift to a new paradigm and a new era. His iconoclasm and irreverence have forced any number of issues that should have been confronted long ago, and he is presently shocking the sleepy, complacent continent of Europe back into wakefulness and forcing us to tentatively paddle back into the lively currents of history.
Europe is finally rearming, and taking up the mantle of its own defence. Trump’s ambivalence in Ukraine has ensured that European countries have upped their commitments, and taken a more independent line in foreign policy. The provocations in Greenland have prompted not only Danish, but British and German troops to deploy to the Arctic Circle. Though couched in the language of answering US security concerns, the deployments are a welcome sign of unlooked for steeliness and defiance, as these are soldiers standing directly in the way of any attempted American annexation.
The response to home-grown populism and Trumpian provocations is still far too complacent, however. Much of Europe’s elite simply wants populism and the forces of history to go away and leave them alone thankyouverymuch. Attacks on American free speech norms and the power of its tech firms to shape the informational space tend to miss the point. There’s a strong element of cope here — they blame the big bad Other (whether Russia or America) for the anger of their own populations at uncontrolled mass migration and civilisational vandalism and self-hatred. But just as pertinent for a Europe that claims to want to control its own destiny, they are failing to influence and direct the informational and narrative realm on their own terms.
Thanks to the bullishness of Trump, Vance and Elon, we’re starting to wake up to these questions, if oh-so-slowly. I don’t like the thuggishness of US language or the adolescent sewer of Musk’s “X”, sure, but why is it left to Americans to point out the threat of uncontrolled migration or the horrors of grooming gangs?
There will be a lot of denials, many tantrums thrown, and endless hand-wringing to be endured before we start entering the territory of serious thought and action. Higher defence spending and expanding arms industry are the first, but in a sense easiest step. What we will need to confront next is just what it is we are defending, and how we will defend it culturally, demographically, intellectually and spiritually.
An alternative European model
What does this look like? Painting in broad strokes, it means reclaiming the idea of Europe as a unique civilisational space, one that we shamelessly and “Eurocentrically” promote, both at home and abroad.
Ironically, if we now moan about populism being pushed by Americans, the original poison of civilisational self-hatred owes much to our cultural submission to American culture and ideas. The settler-colonial issues of race in the US republic have been projected onto the European post-imperial context, and along with this framework we have adopted America’s legalistic wrangling over rights and individual identity.
The EU itself is reaching a point of crisis. For years, despite its motto of “united in diversity”, the EU has relentlessly pushed for an unnatural model of the single currency, legal homogeneity and neoliberal economic alignment. In so doing it has kept Europe subordinate to America, uncompetitive with the state capitalism of China, and has squander our greatest advantage — the agility and variety of ideas and practices in small, highly advanced states. Instead of relentlessly locking us into the same regulation and economic practices, we should diversify our economic models, whilst aligning instead on foreign policy, culture and defence, increasingly acting autonomously of NATO and the US.
Mass migration is an issue that we finally need to manage and confront. Migration, when it is skilled, in managed numbers, and involves individuals committed to joining a common culture and civilisation, can be a strength and a boon. But the scale and type we have seen, as with the madness of Merkel’s commitment to massive Arab migration from an active warzone, has been actively destructive, not least of ethnic harmony and an open, tolerant culture.
The combination of an academy hostile to Western, European and Christian identity, with a massive importation of non Western, non European and non Christian immigrants has created a feeling of existential threat, and a deep feeling of abandonment and alienation. What is needed in its place is a clear civilisational narrative, and a new and strengthened model of citizenship. Migration must become clearly conditioned on national loyalty and civilisational belonging. These messages must pervade culture as well as policy. The dominance of Hollywood and US culture, along with American legal, intellectual and moral norms, must be challenged and alternatives constructed.
Rather than creating a European superstate on American lines, a new European civilisational order could focus on defending regional and national cultures against globalisation, defend rootedness and tradition, and challenge virtual capitalism with an economics centred on manufacturing, craft, aesthetics and social goods. We talk, and with good cause, about the weakness of the European economy relative to American dynamism, but there are weaknesses in the US model. America’s vast wealth doesn’t translate into high quality public infrastructure and services, and it is often paralysed by partisan politics and administrative confusion.
European elites will need to stand up for their cultures, or be torn down
Europe is still developing highly innovative science and technology, but it is failing to capitalise on this economically. The success of American tech-led growth, and Chinese state coordination of large scale manufacturing and infrastructure, are both vital lessons, but need not be swallowed whole. The distinctive advantage of Europe is the good life — we produce food and manufactured goods of a uniquely high quality, haloed by carefully protected cultural legacies that have grown into global reputations. We could unlock some American innovation and employ some Chinese state intervention without importing their dystopian libertarianism or statism, and instead adapt elements of both at the level of small European states and regions, and direct them towards building up our traditional strengths.
We’ve some way to go till we get to such a happy place. Populism will need to run riot before Europe wakes up from its dogmatic liberal slumber. European elites will need to stand up for their cultures, or be torn down. Both sides of the culture war will need to drop dead end ideas and reach a greater intellectual maturity. But we have set our feet upon the path, and we should spare some grudging thanks for our friendly rival and helpful antagonist — Donald J. Trump.
