Europe Security is alarmingly threatened: Foreign Policy Magazine

In its editorial, the magazine comments that Europe’s security is seriously threatened due to Russian invasion of Ukraine. The insecurity has further strengthened due to no guarantee of US supervision of NATO led security for the European continent. The vulnerabilities has compelled leaders of various european countries to focus and enhance their defense infrastructure and update their militaries
Europe has been dependent for too long on a U.S. security blanket that is no longer guaranteed.
Editorial comments “despite the gravity of the moment, Europe’s attempts to put up a united front are like a pail with several leaks: In Belgrade, Bratislava, and Budapest, leaders friendly to the Kremlin have ridden a wave of disinformation and fearmongering to get elected or stay in power. The success of far-right parties in the European Parliament elections in June only added to fears about the continent’s stability.
From Europe’s vantage point, the world looks menacing. If Donald Trump wins a second term as president, he may do as he says and pull the United States out of NATO, the world’s biggest security alliance. Even if Trump doesn’t win, Washington seems likely to focus more on Beijing and less on Brussels. Other countries are noticing the fraying of Europe’s old ties and looking to take advantage. When Chinese President Xi Jinping embarked on his first European tour since 2019 in May, he visited France, Hungary, and Serbia countries that prize their strategic autonomy or are willing to undermine European Union and NATO priorities. As Europe’s hand weakens, the rest of the world will look to divide and conquer the continent.
With its security precarious and its alliances weakening, what will Europe’s future look like?
Former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt writes in his piece in the current publication of FP “Like the fall of Saigon and the fall of Kabul, a Russian victory in Ukraine would be seen across the world as an even more significant sign of the United States’ waning power. The appetite for adventurism from numerous actors is bound to increase.”
In a separate essay, political scientist Hal Brands offers a take from the other side of the Atlantic. Europe has changed so much since World War II that Americans “have forgotten how hopeless the continent once seemed,” he writes. Brands describes a few scenarios for Europe if the United States retreats across the Atlantic. They’re not pretty. “Indeed, if there is a lesson from Europe’s past, it is that the descent can come sooner and be steeper than currently seems possible to imagine,” he writes.