, Columnist
Europe’s Flattery of Trump Is a Strategy. It Isn’t Working.
As Russia gets more aggressive and the US slips away, old demons may revisit the continent.
Trump at the UN on Sept. 23: Europe is “going to hell.”
Photographer: Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty Images
Europe, geographically speaking, is a small peninsula protruding from a much larger landmass, Eurasia. Today, the continent feels small indeed.
Europe is being squeezed by a probing, predatory Russia. It simultaneously faces a US that grows more dangerous, more distant. A continent that flourished in the American global order has reached an epic inflection point: Either Europe will become a geopolitical force in its own right, or it will become an afterthought, a victim, in a fragmenting world.