Rarely have I felt so miserable that my assumptions became reality.

Rarely have I felt so miserable that my suspicions were confirmed

It looks like a grand plan – an insidious one from the European perspective, a genial one according to the Trump administration – but maybe even the latter’s tomb stone.

“It’s official: Trump wants a weaker European Union” Ian Bremmer wrote on December 10, 2025 [1].

He went on to state:

“The transatlantic relationship isn’t at a crossroads, it’s past one. America’s new National Security Strategy confirms what Europeans have feared since Vice President JD Vance’s speech in Munich last February: Washington now sees a strong, unified European Union as a problem to be solved, not an ally to be supported.”

If you are a hegemon, “devide et impera”(divide and conquer [2]) is imperative. But if to the contrary, nations unite, even if in a loose confederation, like the EU, this must be regarded as a threat.

This view is not as far-fetched as it may seem at first glance. Rather it can be viewed as a time-tested principle of pre-emptive defence. There is extensive historical evidence that imperial China employed a diplomatic and military strategy known as yi yi zhi yi (以夷制夷) [3], often translated as "using barbarians to control barbarians". This realpolitik approach aimed to maintain Chinese sovereignty by exploiting internal divisions among nomadic tribes or pitting rival foreign powers against one another

It also echoes Henry Farrell’s December 6^th contemplation: “America has identified its greatest enemy: Western Europe”[4]

While commenting on the Trump Administration’s National Security Strategy (NSS [5]) he further outlined:

“The Trump administration’s new strategy for the world is a kind of Groyper [6] Grand Strategy Cosplay, which simultaneously purports to be a guide to specific policy. It is set to fail, even by its own ludicrous and wildly offensive standards. As I used to tell my students, a National Security Strategy speaks to three audiences: the U.S. government itself; allies and friends, and adversaries. The new strategy can’t be coherently implemented by the first, will alienate the second still further, and will open up opportunities to the third.”

It offers little comfort to us Europeans, especially those who previously presented themselves as staunch transatlanticists, when he closes:

“The Trump administration’s vision of American greatness is making the country poorer, weaker, and meaner. The new strategy document will do its own little bit to accelerate that process.”

For the hawkish Anne Applebaum [7], a staff writer at The Atlantic [8], the NSS is even equal to “The Longest Suicide Note in American History - The Trump administration’s new National Security Strategy targets liberal democracy itself.” [9]

Anyway, we currently receive ample confirmation for former German Chancellor Angela Merkel. who is quoted “U.S. no longer a reliable partner for Europe” [10].

One might wonder, if it ever was.

As if to confirm these doubts, Henry Kissinger according to rumours once said that "America has no permanent friends or enemies, only interests"

Hereby he mentioned one of the guiding principles when we agree to follow the rules of great power politics, whose most visible, vocal, and controversial proponent is currently John Mearsheimer [11]. For a long time, I resisted accepting this theory—until the numerous historical examples could no longer be ignored.

For a slightly more sober view of the current situation, I would like to quote from the latest Oliver Wyman [12] newsletter:

"The year end is a good time for reflection — not just on what has happened, but on the larger forces shaping what comes next. Many of those forces have been building quietly for more than a decade, but there is a growing sense we are living through a profound shift, moving from one order to the next, but without a clear view of what the new one will look like.

The last true inflection point came at the end of the Second World War, when the United States emerged as a global superpower and the geopolitical architecture and rules of engagement were rewritten.

Today, the old order has fractured before a new one has emerged. We are moving from one of the most peaceful periods in human history into a far more contested one. The United States now has a genuine peer competitor — a nation capable of matching its economic might, technological ambition, and geographical reach. The world is returning to spheres of influence, with the US and China defining the geometry of power and Europe uncomfortably caught in between."

Why do I feel so miserable about it? Well, I saw it all coming. In my 2021-09-18 Blog post “Quo vadis Europe? - Rethinking the old continent” [13] I once wrote:

“Europe needs more weight

If we do not want to be the plaything of foreign powers, not the victim of global developments, not ground down between rival power blocs, then we have to reinvent ourselves.

If we want to be taken seriously as a respected player on the world stage, if we want to take ourselves seriously, then we have to create Europe. Yes, we have to create it first. Because the Europe we need for this goal does not yet exist, it has not even been consistently conceived.”

So, the problem is here. It can’t be ignored any longer - although our overwhelmed politicians try their best to do so. Someone finally has to take action. And so, we did. We founded the “ Europeans for the Planet” [14].

We have committed ourselves to three mandates:

• To ensure the survival of humanity in a sustainable and intact environment.
• To preserve our distinctly European civil liberties.
• To establish a Europe as a multi-nation state following unified foreign, defence, financial, and economic policies.

If you share our conviction that Europe is worth surviving as an idea and a reality – what are you waiting for?

Come and join [15] us.

References

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[1] Bremmer, I. (2025, December 10). It’s official: Trump wants a weaker European Union. GZERO Media. Retrieved from https://www.gzeromedia.com/by-ian-bremmer/trump-wants-weaker-european-union

[2] Wikipedia contributors. (n.d.). Divide and conquer. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2025-12-21, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divide_and_conquer

[3] Park, S. B. (2020). The political relations between China and Korea during Qing dynasty (1882–1895): The study on the “yi‑yi‑zhi‑yi” diplomatic strategy (Master’s thesis). Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. https://hdl.handle.net/10356/149168 dr.ntu.edu.sg

  This master’s thesis examines Sino‑Korean diplomatic relations during the late Qing dynasty through the lens of the yi‑yi‑zhi‑yi (以夷制夷, “barbarian against barbarian”) strategy. The author argues that Qing China’s foreign policy toward Chosŏn Korea from 1882 to 1895 should be understood as a strategic application of this paradigm, rather than as conventional tributary dynamics, in the context of increasing Western and Japanese influence. This work is useful for researchers studying historical diplomatic strategies, regional power dynamics in East Asia, and evolving international relations paradigms, and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution‑NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY‑NC 4.0). dr.ntu.edu.sg

[4] Farrell, H. (2025, December 6). America has identified its greatest enemy: Western Europe. Programmable Mutter. Retrieved from https://www.programmablemutter.com/p/america-has-identified-its-final

[5] Brownstein Hyatt Farber SchreckLLP. 2025, December 9). White House releases 2025 National Security Strategy. Retrieved from https://www.bhfs.com/insight/white-house-releases-2025-national-security-strategy/

[6] Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia. (n.d.). Nick Fuentes. In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 2025-12-21, from https://www.britannica.com/biography/Nick-Fuentes

[7] Applebaum, A. (n.d.). Anne Applebaum. The Atlantic. Retrieved 2025-12-21, from https://www.theatlantic.com/author/anne-applebaum/

[8] World news. (n.d.). The Atlantic. Retrieved 2025-12-21, from https://www.theatlantic.com/world/

[9] Applebaum, A. (2025, December). National security strategy and democracy. The Atlantic. Retrieved from https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/12/national-security-strategy-democracy/685270/

[10] CBC News. (2017, May 7). Merkel, Trump discuss NATO, Trump says 'we'll take care of' ISIS. https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/merkel-trump-1.4136906

[11] The University of Chicago, Department of Political Science. (n.d.). John Mearsheimer. Retrieved 2025-12-21, from https://political-science.uchicago.edu/directory/John-Mearsheimer

[12] Oliver Wyman. (n.d.). Home. Retrieved 2025-12-21, from https://www.oliverwyman.com/index.html

[13] Walther, H. (2021, September). Quo vadis Europe? Rethinking the old continent. Horst Walther’s Blog. Retrieved from https://horst-walther.blogspot.com/2021/09/quo-vadis-europe-rethinking-old.html

[14] Europeans for the Planet (n.d.). The party for Europe's place in the world. Retrieved 2025-12-21, from https://eufp.de/

[15] Join — Europäer für den Planeten. (n.d.). Europäer für den Planeten. Retrieved 2025-12-21, from https://eufp.de/join/