Europe Moves From Lazy Idealism to Agressive Realism

About time

Europe is waking up.

Western European nations, along with the UK, are shedding their rose-tinted illusions. The message is clear: nurture the American alliance, but waste no time fortifying their own power. The usual friction between Europe’s big three — Britain, France, and Germany — is fading fast, replaced by a shared sense of urgency.

Two days after the German national election concluded, incoming Chancellor Friedrich Merz wasted no time. Dazed or not, he flew straight to Paris to meet with French President Emmanuel Macron. No diplomatic dance over protocol, no need to reaffirm who outranks whom. The stakes were too high. The issues he wanted to discuss couldn’t wait.

Neither leader revealed what was said behind closed doors, but I have little doubt: Merz and Macron spoke in detail about expanding France’s nuclear umbrella over Europe.

If we were to sit down and draft a to-do list for Western Europe’s big three — Britain, France, and Germany — we’d never finish. The needs are endless, the priorities constantly shifting. But in the days following the Oval Office meeting between Trump, Vance, and Ukrainian President Zelensky, when it became unmistakably clear how the Trump administration planned to handle the global fight for democracy — when it became clear they had no issue reversing the victim-aggressor equation to suit their own agenda — my priority list wrote itself.