It’s Time for Europe to Do the Unthinkable

Foreign Policy ^ | February 18, 2025, 1:24 PM | Kishore Mahbubani, a distinguished fellow at the National University of Singapore’s Asia Research In

[Olog-hai]

… First, Europe should announce its willingness to quit NATO. A Europe that is forced to spend 5 percent on defense is a Europe that doesn’t need the United States. Five percent of the combined EU/U.K. GDP in 2024 amounts to $1.1 trillion, comparable to U.S. defense spending of $824 billion in 2024 (In 2024, the EU and U.K. combined spent around $410 billion on defense.). Eventually, Europe need not quit. But only a credible threat to leave would wake up Trump (and VP J.D. Vance and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth) and force him to treat Europe with respect. By contrast, the insistence of the Europeans on staying in NATO after Trump’s provocative actions gives the impression to the world that they are licking the boots that are kicking them in the face. […]

… (U)nthinkable option 2: Work out a new grand strategic bargain with Russia, with each side accommodating the other’s core interests. […]

If the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, a relatively weaker regional organization, can work out a long-term relationship of trust with a rising power like China, surely the EU can do better with Russia.

And this leads to unthinkable option 3: Work out a new strategic compact with China. Again, in the realm of the ABCs of foreign policy, there’s an important reason why geopolitics is a combination of two words: geography and politics. The geography of the United States, which faces China across the Pacific Ocean, combined with Washington’s urge for primacy, explains the hostile relationship between the United States and China. […] The Europeans foolishly believed that a slavish loyalty to American geopolitical priorities would lead to rich geopolitical dividends for them. Instead, they have been kicked in the face. …

[Olog-hai]

So this one is talking an open Molotov-Ribbentrop agreement with Russia. Isn’t that funny. Never mind joining up with the other historic part of the Second World, i.e. Red China—and all of them in opposition to the USA.

[Tell It Right]

The main NATO work Europe should implement first is:

Need
All
Terrorists
Out

[JayGalt]

Distinguished must mean something different to the author. By following his advice Europe ensures it’s decent into vassaldom and the obliteration of it’s culture & heritage.

[HombreSecreto]

Go ahead, Europe, quite NATO! Show that Trump whose boss!

[JayGalt]

oops descent.

[Jan_Sobieski]

Eurabia is not an entity that we can trust

[Arcadian Empire]

America can have a mutual defense agreement with Canada, Greenland, and Iceland.

European countries can have a mutual defense agreement with other European countries.

[roving]

Why would we protect the countries that are not free anymore?

[rottweiller_inc]

Europe is within spitting distance of full blown communism. The are already setting up to purge the opposition, and void any election that isn’t a fellow commie in other countries. All in the name of Democracy which will henceforth join the ranks of Liberal, Progressive and woke as words that invoke infamy.

[cowboyusa]

The EU is an enemy of the US.

[central_va]

The EU needs to grow a pair.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

It’s Time for Europe to Do the Unthinkable

Grow up?

I will predict something that I said probably twenty years ago and that remains true today. Europe is a naturally violent place that has known peace exactly twice under Pax Romana and Pax Americana.

Once the US pulls out, as we should, they will be at each other's throats inside of a decade.

[packrat35]

Go for it. Kill NATO and lower your spending on your OWN defense. Now how are you going to get that aid to Ukraine idiots????

[Harpotoo]

Quit nato, please do then all our defense dollars can go to defending America!
And nobody wants to f with US A1/2 FANATICS!!!

[Salvavida]

Never mind it has been the USA that has been bearing the burden ever since liberating them from the NAZIs.

So please go it alone without us, and let Islam rule over you.

[dfwgator]

Once the US pulls out, as we should, they will be at each other’s throats inside of a decade.

---

The Turks will make their move, aided by millions of Muslims living throughout Europe.

[Seruzawa]

It’s not that Europe constantly fights internally. It’s that they involve the rest of the world in their bickering.

[Liaison]

The major EU nations have been wanting to have their own military force that is not nato. France and Germany have been dabbling with this idea. Might be the right time to make that happen and just have the US in transactional relationships with specific countries we want to work with and not beholding to article 5.

[FLT-bird]

The author obviously isn’t very familiar with Europe. Freeloading off of America was the whole goal of the Yurps. Spending the money for their own defense - and cutting the socialism at home - is anathema to them.

Their freeloading for generations is precisely why they’re not treated with respect. They haven’t earned it. Their military forces are a joke.

[uranium penguin]

The most realistic situation..

Euro quits/ disolves Nato. All member promise to commit 5%.

Then, as with Nato. None actually do. They maybe do less than the current 2%.

Of course, something happens. maybe the deide to “take Russia out once and for all” and they STILL expect the US to bail their asses out.