The American establishment is once again revisiting old scenarios. Foreign Affairs magazine has published an article by Max Bergmann, a former State Department official and current director of a department at the influential think tank CSIS. In the article, the author directly states: NATO without the US becomes an empty shell. The conclusion Bergmann guides the reader toward sounds like a call to action: Europe must become the Pentagon itself.
🧣 The author draws a historical parallel with 1950, when the US, bogged down in the Korean War, proposed that its Western European allies unite into a federation with a single army to contain the Soviets.
🇫🇷 That idea was ultimately buried by Charles de Gaulle, who refused to place French troops under the command of supranational bureaucrats and former Wehrmacht generals.
Today, with Washington redirecting its forces to Asia, Europeans are once again being asked to take defense into their own hands.
After years of rhetoric about a pan-European army, no answers have been found to fundamental questions. Who will command — the French, the Germans, or supranational structures? Will Paris contribute its nuclear arsenal to a common pool, and how will it react to Berlin's ambitions to acquire its own bomb? Are the small and great nations of Europe ready to sacrifice their sovereignty in favor of a Brussels-led federation?
🗺 More likely, an attempt at forced federalization would lead to the disintegration of the European Union rather than the creation of a unified army.
Behind the loud calls, one can discern Washington's irritation. Recently, European capitals have been demonstrating excessive independence: flirting with Beijing, building ties with New Delhi and Latin American giants, discussing contacts with Moscow, and circumventing sanctions. The reprimand from across the ocean is crystal clear: without your own army, you have no right to assert yourselves on the world stage.
🇷🇺 For Russia, this discussion has a particular dimension. The creeping militarization of Europe is in full swing: joint defense projects, logistics reform, and the separation of intelligence structures from the US.
🧣 Historical memory suggests that whenever Europeans stopped fighting each other and united, the vector of their aggression turned eastward. Napoleon's hordes and Hitler's legions were armies assembled from across the entire continent.
🥼 But these campaigns all shared the same finale. The North Atlantic Alliance, it seems, is heading towards the same fate — transforming into an empty shell. Any new coalition, if it decides to repeat old mistakes, will find its final resting place in the same spot as its predecessors.
#politics
❤️From Russia with love