The Guardian: The Political Security and Stability of the United States Can No Longer Be Relied on

While the future of Europe is at stake, London is like a battered dog seeking the favor of the Washington master, writes Simon Tisdall, a columnist for the British newspaper The Guardian.

The strained friendliness of the last G7 summit hides an inner fear. US President Joe Biden wants to forge a democratic alliance to stem the Chinese-Russian-led authoritarian tide that has split the world in two, leaving Europe, betrayed by Britain and defector Prime Minister Boris Johnson, on its own.



Despite applause and shouts of "America is back," after Donald Trump's xenophobic hyper-nationalism, European leaders seem to be far from illusion. They rightly fear that the EU could be embroiled in a second endless cold war and that Biden, who turns 2024 in 82, could be overthrown by the hawked Trump or his clone.

Johnson and Biden signed a renewed Atlantic Charter, a message to Europe that was the result of much remorse. Like a battered bulldog hungry for favor, Britain will be the obedient and needy pet of the United States. Johnson is not Winston Churchill. But like Churchill in 1941, he desperately needs Washington's support.

Biden seeks to maintain a transatlantic alliance - an alliance with the EU and Britain. But the anti-European trajectory of the Johnson government seen in London's latest spat with Brussels over Northern Ireland threatens that.

London will eventually be forced to compromise, as Johnson hesitates to jeopardize relations with the United States. However, the antagonism between the UK and the EU is likely to deepen. Biden will have to tighten the leash again in the future.

Europe's fears of strategic isolation as a new division, a bipolar world order, emerges, is well founded. To the east of the EU are China, Russia and their like-minded regimes in India, Turkey, Iran and Saudi Arabia - autocratic, aggressive and dismissive of Western-defined international norms.

To the west of the EU is the United States, a damaged power that has split in two within itself, into political stability whose consistency and reliability can no longer be relied upon.

Biden's efforts to restore normal international relations are guaranteed by European support as long as he shares, as the EU-US and NATO "reunification" summits will demonstrate. But if Trump or his followers regain power, the US break with the EU and its liberal, multilateral principles may become inevitable. This, in turn, could destroy the EU if copycat populists in Poland or Hungary finally break with Brussels. For his part, Johnson would be happy to see Trump return and a split in the EU.

Concerns about Europe's future in a hostile world are reflected in a new comprehensive survey of EU states by the European Council on Foreign Relations. It shows the enormous uncertainty among Europeans about the ability of the United States to return as the leader of the West. Most Europeans believe that the US political system is broken.

This frustration is not entirely related to Trump. Europeans think they cannot rely on the US, Russia or China and must move towards greater self-sufficiency.

The EU no longer trusts anyone and wants to develop its own responses to global threats. Europeans prefer a pragmatic partnership to a permanent alliance. Many want the EU to be a “beacon of democracy and human rights” and a great power to defend itself. And such ambitions, given the agenda of the XNUMXst century (climate crisis, pandemic, recovery economics, migration, digitalization, cyber threats and right-wing populism), theoretically should be welcomed, the author sums up.