Denmark’s long and difficult reckoning with America’s abandonment.

Since the end of the Cold War, the Scandinavian kingdom pursued a ‘super-Atlanticist’ strategy in hopes that the US would come to its aid when needed.

Now, trust between Washington and Copenhagen has been broken.

https://mediafaro.org/article/20260129-denmarks-long-and-difficult-reckoning-with-americas-abandonment?mf_channel=mastodon&action=forward

#Denmark #Atlanticism #Greenland #Trump #ColdWar #History

"Europe’s Schmittians are thus split between those, like Sellner, who have pan-European ambitions, and those whose primary point of reference remains the nation-state. On top of that, there is the conundrum of how to respond to American interference in Europe. Yes, AfD politicians welcomed J. D. Vance’s speech at the Munich Security Conference, but they understand that the pursuit of the American national interest will come at Europe’s — and thus Germany’s — expense. Washington clearly does not abide by the principle of nonintervention it enforces in its own so-called backyard.

Embracing Schmitt’s theory of great spaces does not, in fact, help to resolve any of these matters. Ultimately, there was always a tension in Schmitt’s thought. He argued for equality between great spaces but also envisioned an eternal battle between land powers like Germany and sea powers like Britain and the United States — a life-or-death struggle he ardently wanted Germany and its continental European sphere to win. It is in this contradiction, which can be found too in the Right’s simultaneous embrace of ethnopluralism and white supremacism, that the Schmittians remain caught.

It is thus unclear how Germany’s most recent infatuation with Schmitt’s order of great spaces will translate into political practice. Whether it is the far-right or centrist Schmittians who end up running the show, the likely outcome is not territorial annexation but economic hegemony. The result may be a return to the 2010s, when the centrist Schmittian Herfried Münkler played a key role in promoting German hegemony — as the Greeks remember all too well. Indeed, during that period, Münkler advised Wolfgang Schäuble, the conservative architect of externally imposed austerity and the federal debt brake."

https://jacobin.com/2026/01/germany-schmitt-afd-monroe-doctrine

#Germany #USA #Atlanticism #AfD #Schmitt #PoliticalTheory #ForeignPolicy

Owned, Extorted, and Gaslit - Dave Keating on breaking with Atlanticism. EU Scream [podcast]

Since returning to the White House on Jan. 20, Donald Trump has imposed one-sided tariffs on the European Union, forced the bloc to commit to buying vast quantities of American natural gas, and effectively threatened annexation of Greenland. The latest indignity for Europe includes a White House National Security Strategy that calls on far-right parties to muster patriotic resistance to European policies. Instead of standing up to this blatant foreign interference, EU leaders have repeatedly tried to appease Trump and avoid any possible escalations of tension — even at the cost of their dignity. Examples include European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen weakening EU environmental and digital regulations in line with American demands, and NATO Secretary General Marc Rutte addressing Trump as “daddy” in front of the world’s media. Trump may be the proximate cause of this annus horribilis for the EU. But the reasons for subservience run far deeper, says Dave Keating, a broadcaster and the author of a new book, The Owned Continent. A key factor is US command and control over the NATO military alliance, which Europe has relied on for protection from Russia for nearly eight decades. Trump and Maga are now openly exploiting that military dependency, amid Russia’s assault on Ukraine, to block European regulation of tech oligarchs and fossil fuels. “Never before has there been an explicit connection from the US government between the military protectorate and EU policy,” says Dave, who says the extortion is “a first” for the Trump administration. Another factor behind the European reluctance to treat the US in a more adversarial fashion, even as Maga amps up its belligerence, is the pervasiveness of American culture through cinema, news media, social media and streaming platforms. “Europeans are inundated by American culture from birth” says Dave. That also makes it “hard to accept that the US is a threat.” Freeing Europe from its long vassalage is a strategic priority that starts with creation sovereign EU defense capabilities, says Dave. But that would require acknowledging that France was right to resist reliance on US military systems and hardware. It also would require Europe to make a decisive break with Atlanticism, an ideology that prioritizes NATO and that remains deeply entrenched among EU elites and in Poland and the Baltics. But Atlanticism may be an increasingly hard sell. It relies on increasingly implausible assumptions: that the US will keep large numbers of troops in Europe and uphold its mutual defense commitment under the NATO treaty despite abundant evidence otherwise. “At what point do citizens say, ‘enough is enough, we’ve had it with these centrist European leaders lying to us, gaslighting us’?” Dave asks. “If Europeans keep electing these people, then they are signing their own death warrant as a sovereign continent.” 

*SOMO* *report *on the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive.

*The Authoritarian Stack* *project *on the threat posed by tech billionaires.

Mp3: https://www.buzzsprout.com/178148/episodes/18370429-ep-123-owned-extorted-and-gaslit.mp3

i seem to see the U.S.-Israel relationship about the way @mattduss does
https://pdbowman.studio/briefs/24-jun-2025-matt-duss-jeet-heer-united-states-israel-liberal-order/

#Israel #liberalEmpire #atlanticism #worldOrder

From an opinion piece today in the FT, by Stephens:

There is nothing new … in the suggestion from Downing Street that Starmer could act as “bridge” between Trump and other European leaders. The metaphor is an unfortunate one. When Tony Blair threw in his lot with George W Bush to topple Iraq’s Saddam Hussein, he discovered that bridges are walked over. #ukPol #USpol #atlanticism

I suspect that some British are thinking of Trump as an unpleasant but temporary interlude; normal service , they imagine, will be restored in 2028.

This belief is wholly misguided. As Alexander Hurst points out,
Trump has now made it impossible for other countries to rely on the USA, and this breakdown in trust is irreversible for the foreseeable future, no matter who is president.

The ‘west’ is over. In the Trumpian era, Europe is on its own | Alexander Hurst | The Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/feb/21/the-west-is-over-in-the-trumpian-era-europe-is-on-its-own

#Politics #DonaldTrump #Atlanticism #InternationalRelations

The depressing thing about these EU elections is it rams home just how much the great and the good in Europe have only two real red lines: #Austerity and support for #NATO .

Anything liberal, free speech, human rights, even the rule of law can go. Ditto any action on #climate change. Heaven forefend that you relax your hatred of non Europeans. Just so long as you sign up to #Atlanticism and dismantling the last vestiges of public provision of welfare.

#EU, #EUelection