World News: Europe’s Emancipation Will Take Courage and Desire

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Category: World News - Europe

Published on Tuesday, 11 March 2025 10:45

Written by Olivier Longhi

Europe now caught in a vice by the brutality of Donald Trump and the deadly cynicism of Vladimir Putin, the continent is now now seen for its cowardice and its inability to stand up to the two big powers.

If she wants to emancipate herself, she will have to be courageous. At what price? Being humiliated is one thing. Being weak is another. Both, as uncomfortable as they may be, are ultimately not reprehensible. The first is due to the lack of intelligence and delicacy of the person who administers this humiliation; the second is a value judgment and ultimately reveals itself to be very relative.

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Since Donald Trump's accession to the White House, Europe has experienced both feelings, just as it has experienced them with the outbreak of the war in Ukraine in February 2022. But what is most disturbing and worrying is Europe's underlying or clearly displayed cowardice in the face of Donald Trump's United States and Vladimir Putin's Russia. Cowardly because he is unable to stand up to a newly elected president who is waving the security and economic threat as a weapon of mass destruction.

Empty Shell and Human Rights

The same is true of the Russian president, from whom Europe, and France in particular, continues to buy gas from the country whose destiny he manages. Some, rightly or not, will cry out that Europe has no way of thwarting the desires of one or the other, that the power of the former is allied with the cynicism of the latter, the scorned Europe preferring to take refuge timidly, sheepishly, behind treaties of alliance, including that of NATO, which has become an empty shell for the latter since Vice-President J.D. Vance declared that Europe must learn to defend itself.

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So, beyond the observation, why not see in the desire of Trump and Putin to extinguish the voice of Europe, the opportunity to reinvent a continent that has assets and not the least. Without making a complete list, it would be good for the Old Continent to assert its political, diplomatic and military majority. Because it has the means to do so, unless it wants to become the silent vassals of two potential despots whose final objective is in no way the general interest, but their own interests bathed in a brutal, arrogant and condescending populism.

By dint of brandishing the banner of benevolent humanism, Atlanticism lulled by illusions and Human Rights incapable of containing the destructive impulses of some, Europe and the European Union have let the train of geopolitical upheavals that have been underway for several years pass by.

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Security and Deterrence

Convinced of the brotherhood of the United States and of Putin's pragmatism, Europe has allowed itself to be deceived while lying to itself for the sake of convenience. With her back to the wall, she must now take responsibility even if it means offending or irritating the Trump-Putin duo who are working against her, the task being made all the easier by the absence of actions and reactions capable of slowing down the two big ones.

By abandoning its security to the United States, by deserting the diplomatic field, by procrastinating on aid to Ukraine (thus opening life to the reaction of Donald Trump that we witnessed in the Oval Office), Europe has lost all form of credibility, which is perhaps even worse than the cowardice it shows. And some put forward the issue of nuclear deterrence entrusted to France and the United Kingdom.

Here again, the question does not leave us without questioning: what material resources should be deployed, where in Europe, who would finance it and within what budgetary limits? Becoming independent has a cost, and not only a military one, because it is necessarily served by economic obligations that could meet with the hostility of the people.

Starting from the doctrine Si vis pacem para bellum, the Old Continent is also taking the risk of antagonizing Russia or even the United States of Donald Trump, who intends to vassalize Europe, just like Ukraine, and not to see it emancipate itself in its entirety. Because in the end, it is a question of courage. That of standing up to two countries with an appetite, not insatiable but certain. It is up to Europe to show that the fridge is no longer open.

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Bio: Olivier Longhi has extensive experience in European history. A seasoned journalist with fifteen years of experience, he is currently a professor of history and geography in the Toulouse region of France. He has held a variety of publishing positions, including Head of Agency and Chief of Publishing. A journalist and recognized blogger, editor, and editorial project manager, he has trained and managed editorial teams, worked as a journalist for various local radio stations, was a press and publishing consultant, and was a communications consultant.