Should Europe cut it's dependence on American hegemony?

Quote:

Without active American support and participation, the machinery of global co-operation could well fail. The World Trade Organisation would not be worthy of the name. The UN would fall into disuse. Countless treaties and conventions would be undermined. Although each one stands alone, together they form a system that binds America to its allies and projects its power across the world. Because habits of co-operation that were decades in the making cannot easily be put back together again, the harm would be lasting. In the spiral of distrust and recrimination, countries that are dissatisfied with the world will be tempted to change it—if necessary by force. What to do? The first task is to limit the damage. There is little point in cutting Mr Trump off. Moderate Republicans and America’s allies need to tell him why Mr Bannon and his co-ideologues are wrong. Even in the narrowest sense of American self-interest, their appetite for bilateralism is misguided, not least because the economic harm from the complexity and contradictions of a web of bilateral relations would outweigh any gains to be won from tougher negotiations. Mr Trump also needs to be persuaded that alliances are America’s greatest source of power. Its unique network plays as large a role as its economy and its military might in making it the global superpower. Alliances help raise it above its regional rivals—China in East Asia, Russia in eastern Europe, Iran in the Middle East. If Mr Trump truly wants to put America First, his priority should be strengthening ties, not treating allies with contempt. And if this advice is ignored? America’s allies must strive to preserve multilateral institutions for the day after Mr Trump, by bolstering their finances and limiting the strife within them. And they must plan for a world without American leadership. If anyone is tempted to look to China to take on the mantle, it is not ready, even if that were desirable. Europe will no longer have the luxury of underfunding NATO and undercutting the EU’s foreign service—the closest it has to a State Department. Brazil, the regional power, must be prepared to help lead Latin America. In the Middle East fractious Arab states will together have to find a formula for living at peace with Iran. A web of bilateralism and a jerry-rigged regionalism are palpably worse for America than the world Mr Trump inherited. It is not too late for him to conclude how much worse, to ditch his bomb-throwers and switch course. The world should hope for that outcome. But it must prepare for trouble.

http://ift.tt/2jD6jfA

The extreme level of stability and prosperity that has prevailed throughout most of western Europe in the aftermath of WW2 has largely been a result of America standing over our shoulders and not just protecting us from the Soviet Union but also from ourselves. Thanks to this Western Europe is at the present the most prosperous and developed part of the world.

Of course it would be preferable if the American people sees reason and evicts this cretin before he causes more harm than he already has i find it quite likely that he will be able serve his four years and perhaps even more. If Americans are going to be unreliable allies by electing ignoramuses who openly defend and advocate for torture I'm more than willing to consider that Europe strike our own course without being overly dependent on Americas protection.

If we do so i foresee two possible outcomes:

We either band up in the EU, or some similar institution, in-order to maintain this internal peace that has been completely unprecedented throughout history but also guard against adversarial forces willing to take advantage of our individual weakness. It's join or die time and we can't let our individual national interests jeopardize everyone's peace and stability.

The other is that we choose to fallback into our centuries old customs of violent bickering over petty disputes and imperialist ambitions. Living standards and prosperity would decrease even for the countries able to maintain peace as evermore resources are spent on waging war among ourselves. Moreover, the stakes are far higher now and the ambitions of the next Napoleon or Hitler might not result in millions of dead but rather billions.

via International Skeptics Forum http://ift.tt/2l0BT3V