Blog

Diplomacy is meant to be the management of international relations through negotiation. Under President Donald Trump, however, America’s top diplomats to Europe seem to practice something closer to confrontation. The US ambassador to France recycles street violence into political polarisation, denouncing what he calls a rising threat of violent radical leftism in France. The ambassador to Belgium brands a police investigation into illegal Jewish circumcisions as antisemitic p

Europe collectively faces a binary choice. It can take the blue pill, chose to disregard reality and continue down the path of humiliation, becoming a playing ground for international powers while managing its own geopolitical decline. Or it can take the red pill, embrace reality and step up to regain agency over its own destiny. Europe faces an adversary that seeks domination in its desired sphere of interest, disregards international rules and institutions, uses naked force

Ukraine’s future will continue to loom large, but 2026 should be the year of real European geopolitics in relation to the US and China. 2025 is gone and the war in Ukraine has not ended by Trumpian decree, on Russia-friendly terms. That the continuation of bloodshed is probably the best bit of European news from last year tells one something about Europe’s current predicament. 2025 was Europe’s annus horribilis, exposing external dependencies and internal divisions alike in a