Not all is well with Europe

The recent peace initiative by the US to put an end to the Russia-Ukraine conflict exposed the fissure points of continental Europe.

- GAUTAM BHATTACHARYA

Donald Tusk, the Prime Minister of Poland said “It is striking but it’s true. Right now, 500 million Europeans are begging 300 million Americans for protection from 140 million Russians who have been unable to overcome 50 million Ukrainians for three years.” The statement of the Polish PM best describes the political scenario of the West. Decline in geopolitical importance of Europe, economic stagnation, and illegal immigration primarily from certain Asian and African countries created new challenges for the liberal democracies of Europe.

In the last three decades, European nations increasingly depended on NATO for their security issues against all possible threats from the East — perceived or real. Because of that, the number of member-countries in NATO increased from 16 in 1991 to 32 in 2025. It is natural that the European nations, particularly the smaller ones will be unnerved if the US takes a neutral stand when a member nation or a nation aspiring to be a part of NATO is in conflict with a non-NATO nation.

After the summit of US and Russia at Alaska on August 15 and at short notice, the German chancellor, French President, British Prime Minister, Italian Prime Minister, Finnish President and President of the European Commission all rushed to the US to ensure that the peace solution was not tilted towards Russian demands. The events of August 2025 only exposed the increased irrelevance of Europe in global geopolitics and dependence of the European nations on the US when it comes to a perceived threat from Russia. In this respect, the situation seems to have not changed much since cold-war days.