Europe Has Received the Message – Without America to rely on, the EU is gearing up to be a global power in its own right.
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/2026/02/european-union-defense-spending/685983/?gift=hNQKKSPIv6jUWJMtQ9-SNukmRmk6XL1PM7sixsBLyBg
Posted by AlexandrTheTolerable
29 Comments
From the article:
European countries are making a point of reducing their dependence on the United States. Germany currently plans to spend only 8 percent of its rearmament budget on U.S. arms. It is even developing its own satellite-communications network to replace Starlink.
And the defense firms are productive: Germany’s Rheinmetall will soon be able to produce more artillery shells than the entire U.S. defense industry.
Europe is not yet a fully autonomous power, and it won’t become one tomorrow. But thanks to Trump, a transformation is under way. The decisive question is whether Europe can stay this course. A super-election year looms in 2027, when France, Italy, Spain, and Poland will all hold votes. Victories by the far right could derail the current trajectory.
Or not: EU approval is at 74 percent, a record high. Young far-right politicians may well understand that returning to the nation-state means choosing powerlessness.
This may be the outcome that leaders in Washington, Moscow, and Beijing prefer. But in their effort to fragment Europe into pliable nation-states, they are instead galvanizing its slow-motion march toward self-determination.
Good. Not a minute too soon.
We will end up with a federal Europe, a third power next to the US and China.
It is inevitable. Either that or be crushed into irrelevance.
In terms of cloud compute and software independence, it’s about time we had real competition to the major US providers, the monopolies enjoyed by the like of Microsoft, VMWare, Citrix etc… have caused huge price gouging over the last few years, serious nation state funding into FOSS alternatives will help bring forward real alternatives that don’t need larger support depts to maintain.
Faster! Faster!
Well – The Atlantic got it right? We are in for a rocky ride, but for the forseeable future the US is out of the picture as a reliable partner. I think Marco’s speech made it absolutely clear that in an administration with Donald or him at the table, Europe should choose another path.
Greenland will not sell as much as a postmark of its soil, the trade deal is dead and now the US has lost most all influence on Ukraine and has to fall in behind the European agenda. The US demise is a deroute that lacks comparison and leaves a gaping hole in the Atlantic cooperation, that future administrations will use decades to repair.
Let’s call Donald John an experiment, but the price paid by ordinary Americans is setting them back decades as well.
Good read. Thank you for posting this.
The posts where it is insinuated that Europe is small, unimportant, weak, not mature etc are really aggravating.
Who keeps polluting the internet with this tripe.
No choice unfortunately.
So how will Europe manage to bring all its talent back home, given that a highly talented person cannot stay in Europe to succeed?
About time
Finally. Its going to be great!
we need to keep going this direction even after next U.S. election.
Hope it happens. We shall see.
Historically speaking this isn’t a good idea. 😳
Not with the most expensive electricity on earth, they’re not.
I think we had our globalist run, it is slightly different vibe now. Global power is not the goal, but continental.
That is the way
Cut regulations, lower taxes, curb unions, deport illegals, rebuild the military => prosper and be safe
Any day now guys
Except for Ireland. Who are living it up out there in the middle of the ocean.
And so it begins….
About damn time
Forced weaning.
Canada still has your back, Europe.
Finally, an entire continent can do the work of a whole nation. About damn time.
I find it really cumbersome that the central question seems to be “is it too much to ask to make Europe pay its fair share in its defence and become independent from the US?”
It should be: can the US live with the fact that, once we are a global power also in the military realm, we will pursue our own interest, even when these interests don’t align with the interest of the US? Because i really doubt that the US is ready to accept that. They seem to have the dream that we won’t have our own agenda.
Wish I could help, but this is still broken.
– An American
1890 here we come!!!!!
I’d like to remind everyone around the world that the world wars were the culmination of a few hundred years of escalating warfare. We basically invented modern warfare.
After WW2 we were happy to be put into the corner to keep us from warring all the time. I’d suggest people reconsider pushing Europeans getting comfortable with war again.