America First? For Europe, It's America as Usual
After Putin's Ukraine war, Trump’s terms collide with EU in denial.
Europe’s problem.
Photographer: Misha Friedman/Getty Images Europe“Eastern Europe is no longer at the heart of American foreign policy...People question whether NATO would be willing and able to come to [its] defense.” You might expect to hear these views in Brussels today, with European leaders spitting tacks over being snubbed by Donald Trump as he prepares Ukraine talks with Vladimir Putin while shifting more of the burden of continental security onto his allies.
Yet those words were written over 15 years ago in a 2009 letter to Trump predecessor Barack Obama, by leading figures from former Iron Curtain countries like Poland, Bulgaria and Czech Republic. Even back then, the fear was that the US’s push for a reset with Russia while pivoting to Asia would make Europe’s Eastern flank more vulnerable. Today, when the Trump administration says it’s unlikely that Ukraine will return to its pre-2014 borders and that the bigger security priority is China, one imagines US allies feeling a sense of deja vu as well as anger.