The chancellor’s strategy of never contradicting the U.S. president in front of the cameras looks humiliating, but he believes he can talk him around on Ukraine and trade.
No, you seem to be (willingly?) misrepresenting what I’m saying. There is no long term plan. There is no strategy. There simply is a situation in which the actions of Europeans in the past have caught up with Europeans in the present and we are now stuck between a rock we failed to move decades ago and a hard place we built ourselves. What our current crop of “leaders” seems to be doing is (once again) hoping this all blows over in a decade, because we’re all out of other good options. While this is a fatalistic point of view, I believe it is warranted. Building some degree of strategic autonomy will take years, maybe decades. Until then we remain dependent on the hegemon and cannot face it head first on any and every issue. Had we collectively done what le Général had told us to do back in the 1960s, we’d be in a better position, but we didn’t, so we aren’t.
I’m calling “wait and hope it will pass” a strategy. You seem to disagree it’s a “strategy” but you do agree it’s what they are doing and you say it’s warranted.
I’m saying it’s shortsighted and stupid. They do have a choice. When Trump won for the first time 9 (!!!) years ago they should have realized that US is no longer a valid partner. They had 8 years to invest in defense, forge new alliances and protect economy from US influence. Instead they decided wait hoping it will pass. They also have another option now: capitalize on the negative view of US shared by majority of EU citizens and start making though decisions hoping people will understand and accept them. To do this you need to explain what the situation is and what needs to be done. All the far-right parties in EU that celebrated Trump’s second term are vulnerable now. Instead of exploiting this they are still trying to find some middle ground where they can be friendly to USA and promote EU solidarity at the same time. This situation with Spain shows that it doesn’t work. The messaging from EU is the exact opposite of what it should be and I think it’s result of incompetence, not lack of options.
No, you seem to be (willingly?) misrepresenting what I’m saying. There is no long term plan. There is no strategy. There simply is a situation in which the actions of Europeans in the past have caught up with Europeans in the present and we are now stuck between a rock we failed to move decades ago and a hard place we built ourselves. What our current crop of “leaders” seems to be doing is (once again) hoping this all blows over in a decade, because we’re all out of other good options. While this is a fatalistic point of view, I believe it is warranted. Building some degree of strategic autonomy will take years, maybe decades. Until then we remain dependent on the hegemon and cannot face it head first on any and every issue. Had we collectively done what le Général had told us to do back in the 1960s, we’d be in a better position, but we didn’t, so we aren’t.
I’m calling “wait and hope it will pass” a strategy. You seem to disagree it’s a “strategy” but you do agree it’s what they are doing and you say it’s warranted.
I’m saying it’s shortsighted and stupid. They do have a choice. When Trump won for the first time 9 (!!!) years ago they should have realized that US is no longer a valid partner. They had 8 years to invest in defense, forge new alliances and protect economy from US influence. Instead they decided wait hoping it will pass. They also have another option now: capitalize on the negative view of US shared by majority of EU citizens and start making though decisions hoping people will understand and accept them. To do this you need to explain what the situation is and what needs to be done. All the far-right parties in EU that celebrated Trump’s second term are vulnerable now. Instead of exploiting this they are still trying to find some middle ground where they can be friendly to USA and promote EU solidarity at the same time. This situation with Spain shows that it doesn’t work. The messaging from EU is the exact opposite of what it should be and I think it’s result of incompetence, not lack of options.