The end of Nato is coming

No President has created so much doubt about America’s commitment to trans-Atlantic security

- RAJAN MENON

US President Donald Trump's hopes to annex Greenland appearto beat an end. On Wednesday, he pulled back from the prospect of military invasion and abandoned the threat of tariffs to secure the territory. Instead, he wrote on Truth Social, thereisa “framework” agreementin place, the details of which are still to come to light. The crisis, for now, seems to be averted.

That is a relief. But the aggression cannot be forgotten. In an extraordinary conceit, MrTrump said he’d like to buy the island, an autonomous territory of Denmark, and could take it by force if necessary. No one imagined that the United States, Nato’s founderand prime protector, would threaten to invade one of its members. Yet that’s where we got to.

What happensnext?Tojudge by the comments of those gathered this week in Davos, Switzerland — where Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada announced a “rupture” in the world order — nobody really knows. Europeans are surely scrabblingtomake good on Mr Trump's climb-down. But after the shock of recent weeks, nobody should be in any doubt: Nato as we knowit, thealliancethathasbeenthe bedrock of trans-Atlantic security for over75 years, iscomingtoan end.

Tobesure, itsunraveling won’tbe immediate and will entail all manner ofdisruption. But itwill be no disaster. For Europe, which has long subcontracted its security to Washington, possesses both the motiveand the meanstoprotect itself. Indeed, this week showed howeffective itcan be when its leaders work in concert with one another, Amid Trumpian turbulence, Europe has achance to step out of America’s shadow.