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Posted by Joshua Scheer
For decades, the Western Alliance has been treated as a permanent fixture of global politics — a transatlantic bond forged in the ashes of World War II and held together through the Cold War by a shared fear of the Soviet Union. But as this video argues, the world that created NATO no longer exists, and the assumptions that once held Europe and the United States together are cracking under the weight of new geopolitical realities.
The rise of China as an economic and technological superpower, Europe’s deepening trade ties with Beijing, and Washington’s escalating pressure campaigns have all exposed the uncomfortable truth: the “alliance” has always been a hierarchy, and the United States has always sat at the top. What’s different today is that the old Cold War glue no longer works — and the Trump administration’s aggressive economic demands, territorial ambitions, and threats toward its own allies have forced Europe to confront a question it has avoided for generations: Is dependence on Washington still sustainable?
This video traces the long arc from Bretton Woods to NATO to the unipolar moment and into today’s fractured landscape, where Europe is caught between its economic future and its military past, between U.S. pressure and Chinese opportunity, between rhetoric about “shared values” and the hard math of trade, energy, and technology. Whether or not Trump ultimately “destroys” the Western Alliance, the deeper story is clear: the world is shifting, and Europe is no longer guaranteed a place under Washington’s wing — or Washington’s thumb.
In the end, the question of whether Donald Trump is “destroying” the Western Alliance may miss the deeper reality: the alliance has been eroding for years under the weight of economic shifts, technological dependency, and a rapidly changing global balance of power. Trump’s confrontational approach has simply forced long‑ignored contradictions into the open, exposing Europe’s structural reliance on Washington while simultaneously pushing EU leaders to explore alternatives in Beijing, New Delhi, and beyond. Whether this moment becomes a rupture or merely another cycle of transatlantic tension will depend less on rhetoric and more on whether Europe can meaningfully diversify its trade, energy, and security relationships. What is clear is that the post‑1945 order is fading, and the world that replaces it will be shaped not by nostalgia for old alliances, but by the hard realities of a multipolar century.
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