The United States is increasingly distancing itself from NATO, and it is time for Europe and Canada to take the lead in strengthening the alliance and ensuring their own security.
Dr. Stefanie Babst, former NATO Deputy Assistant Secretary General, and General Sir Richard Shirreff, former Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe, said this in a joint commentary for Ukrinform and the UK’s Independent.
“Shockingly for Washington’s long-standing European allies, the Trump administration is prepared to hand on a plate to Putin, the most brutal aggressor Europe has faced since Hitler, two major Russian foreign policy goals: decoupling of America from European security and the neutralization of NATO,” Babst and Shirreff said.
In their view, Trump’s attempts to ram a so-called “peace deal” down Ukrainian and European throats, side with the Kremlin and its authoritarian supporters in UN votes, suspend cyber operations against Russia, acknowledge Moscow’s illegal annexation of Crimea and halt critical military intelligence for Ukraine underscore that Washington has departed from the NATO consensus on Russia and Ukraine.
“While European leaders are trying desperately to keep Trump onsite, hoping that he will pressure Putin to the negotiating table, their potential diplomatic breakthrough in Istanbul flopped. It cannot mask the reality that Trump is deeply agnostic about the fate of Ukraine and is ready to recognize a Russian sphere of influence in Eastern Europe,” the former NATO officials said.
They characterize this shift in U.S. foreign policy as fundamental. According to them, for Trump, the geopolitical planet is a jungle where only those with a “winner takes it all approach” can survive. Enlarging America’s geoeconomic sphere of influence, keeping China as the most daunting strategic competitor at bay and aggressively pursuing profitable business deals are Trump’s foreign policy objective.
In their opinion, Europeans and Canadians must confront the new geopolitical reality with clarity, though some European governments still look at Washington to provide them with a generous 5-10 years’ timeframe to build up Europe’s defense capability.
“This is naive at best. Rather, the assumption must be that Trump has pulled the U.S. defensive rug from under Europe’s feet and that Europe must stand alone or fail. This means that it is imperative for Europeans and Canadians to keep NATO functioning and to build up European capabilities quickly,” Babst and Shirreff wrote.
They propose that Europe and Canada must accept Trump’s decoupling from European security as a fact and start developing a concrete roadmap for a reinvigorated NATO that Europeans will lead in the future.
The former NATO leaders admit the challenge at hand may look overwhelming, but insist that with sufficient political will it is doable. In their view, a European-led NATO Command Structure could be trimmed down and adapted. A General Defense Plan, combined with a rigorous exercise program, could help to gear NATO’s military posture towards what it must be prepared for in the first place: to fight a modern-conventional war across all domains. A much more synchronized capability development program, worked out in close cooperation with the European Union, could fill gaps in command and control, reconnaissance and surveillance, military mobility and other areas.
“Now is the time for ‘action this day’ as Churchill would have said,” they stress. According to them, the opportunity presented by June’s NATO Summit must not be squandered by supplicant European leaders begging for a sign from Trump that all remains well. Rather, they must present a rigorous strategy for how a Europe whole, free and secure from the long-term existential threat from Russia can be achieved without U.S. participation. European societies must build again the resilience of the Cold War which will mean sacrifice, hard work, moral courage and exemplary political leadership.
“The first step in such a strategy is to provide the means, capabilities and expertise to support Ukraine in defeating Russia in Ukraine and to provide Ukraine with credible security guarantees. Only when Putin and his successors recognize that Ukraine will never become part of a new Russian empire can there be lasting peace in Europe,” the ex-NATO officials said.
They emphasized that “capitulation to the Trump agenda spells suicide for European security and democracy, the rolling back of NATO from its post-1997 boundaries and the establishment of Putin’s ‘new Yalta’ in which Russia, once again, dominates Eastern Europe.” This would mean almost certain war between Europe (and Canada) and Russia, they added.
“But such a catastrophe is not inevitable if Europe is prepared to fight a second Cold War to avoid a third World War,” Babst and Shirreff said.
According to them, European leaders have had more than three years to recognize that the Russian way of war and diplomacy is one of the brutal application of raw power and terror. Now they must turn the tide. By unleashing “the right will, energy and determination,” Europe is more than capable of outmatching Russia. Above all, Europeans must believe in their own power, they stressed.
Photo: PAP/EPA
Source: Europe, Canada must stop relying on US, say former NATO officials
