The Western World Needs a New Leader

Europe must establish itself militarily. It can no longer rely on the United States under President Donald Trump. Austria must also rethink its position on neutrality.

Many years ago at an evening barbecue in Washington, notwithstanding the unspoken rule against discussing politics or religion at a private function, the conversation turned to the Iraq War. The U.S., then led by George W. Bush’s administration, believed it only needed to topple Saddam Hussein and all the other dictatorships and autocracies would fall like dominoes toward democracy.

It was a misconception that sowed deep division in the U.S., and it all ended in chaos. The American interlocutor silenced the critical debate at the time about U.S. policy in Iraq with a simple question: What was Europe prepared to go to war for? What were Europeans ready to die for?

Europe was always comfortable freeloading off the United States. You need only think back to the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s, which saw the worst acts of genocide since the end of World War II. How did Europe respond to these massacres on its own continent? It set up working groups. It was only after the U.S. gave the green light that NATO intervened in the conflict with military force.

The Beginning of the End of the West

We can no longer count on the United States; Washington is no longer a reliable partner for the Western world. Anyone who still held such hope after Donald Trump’s reelection must surely have abandoned them entirely after Friday’s explosive exchange with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office. As we watched that event, we were witnessing the beginning of the end of the West as we know it.

Trump wants to bring about an end to the war between Ukraine and Russia by whatever means necessary no matter what it costs. He is not even involving Europe in the process. With any luck, this is the last wake-up call the EU needs. At least British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron agreed to work with one or two other countries at Sunday’s London summit on ending the war. The European Council is also scheduled to address the matter at its special meeting on Thursday.

Conferences, stated intentions and promises will not be enough, however. Europe must follow through with action, which will ultimately lead it to become a strong force within NATO, if not its own security alliance. The future of NATO, which the U.S. has always determined, is now anything but clear under this U.S. president.

An Insecure and Embittered America

It will be expensive, but it is the only way Europe can take its place at the international political table. The world will only take the EU seriously if it becomes a military power that no longer simply stands on the sidelines of a conflict fought on its own continent, but is prepared to stand up and be counted, and even put European lives on the line. Austria will also play a role in this military alliance, and it will have to rethink its constitutional neutrality.

Moreover, it will not suffice to wait out Trump’s term in the vain hope that a more reasonable successor will come along. The United States is simply not the country it once was. American society is no longer filled with hope and confidence that things will always continue to get better. The U.S. has become home to an insecure and embittered society, as Trump’s decisive victory in all the swing states demonstrated.

The West needs a new leader. The United States is not that leader anymore.