Can Europe adapt to the trans-Atlantic reset sparked by Trump’s America First foreign policy?

The Trump administration’s trans-Atlantic policy has made a sharp break from that of the Biden administration, and in fact, from the entire post-World War II paradigm where the US was the prime guarantor of European security. Three quick, successive developments have underscored this departure.

First came US Vice President J.D. Vance’s speech at the Munich Security Conference in mid-February, where he said that the biggest threat to Europe’s security is “from within”. Second, the very public spat between Donald Trump and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House, after which President Donald Trump announced that the US was pausing military and intelligence aid to Ukraine. Finally, Zelenskyy buckling under the pressure, and agreeing to a US-sponsored offer of a 30-day ceasefire deal with Russia.

All these developments have made it clear that Europe will need to completely rethink its security-related assumptions that governed its relationship with the US under a capacious NATO umbrella.

Is the trans-Atlantic alliance due for a comprehensive reset? Can Europe continue to outsource its security needs to the US, or does it need to mobilise more actively to achieve self-reliance? What adjustments does Europe need to make, and what kind of a security architecture does Europe need to work towards?

Guest: Marta Mucznik, Senior EU Analyst, Advocacy & Research, International Crisis Group, Brussels.

Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu

Edited by Jude Francis Weston