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Denmark’s Ministry of Defence launched this picture of Danish troopers coaching in Greenland on Jan. 18, 2026. (AFP/Yonhap)
“Preserve the Russians out, the Individuals in, and the Germans down.”
These phrases from Hastings Ismay, the British normal who served as the primary secretary normal of NATO, provided probably the most exact expression of the Western alliance that served because the linchpin of the post-World Warfare II worldwide order: the alliance throughout the Atlantic between the US and Europe.
The postwar order was outlined by a technique of Western powers — centered on the US — checking the anti-Western powers symbolized by the Soviet Union. Even after the socialist world started crumbling in earnest with the Soviet Union’s disintegration in 1991, the Western alliance symbolized by NATO remained a pillar of the worldwide order, taking part in a number one position in varied worldwide issues.
However some at the moment are suggesting that after its central position within the Western alliance, Europe is now going through a brand new paradigm: protecting the US out, compromising with Russia and China, and boosting Germany.
On Jan. 5, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen commented on US President Donald Trump’s insistence on buying Greenland, which is at present an autonomous territory of Denmark.
“If the US decides to militarily assault one other NATO nation, then every thing would cease,” she predicted. “That features NATO and subsequently post-Second World Warfare safety.”
Stressing that Trump needs to be taken critically, she instructed that his phrases wouldn’t stay on the stage of mere threats.
Certainly, occasions since then have unfolded precisely as Frederiksen warned.
On Jan. 8, US Vice President JD Vance cautioned that Trump’s remarks on Greenland needs to be taken at face worth, hinting that the US president won’t rule out the potential for utilizing navy power.
After a senior-level assembly between the US, Denmark and Greenland on the White Home on Jan. 14 ended up and not using a breakthrough, eight European NATO members introduced later that day that they might be staging the “Arctic Endurance” navy train in Greenland.
On Jan. 17, Trump threatened these eight international locations with 10% tariffs on all exports to the US starting on Feb. 1, with an extra improve to 25% beginning in June. The next day, information studies emerged that the European Fee was mulling over retaliatory tariffs in opposition to the US amounting to €93 billion.
Even when these tariffs don’t come to go, Europe sees the mutual distrust as having already reached crucial mass. The Trump administration was already repudiating Europe’s efficacy throughout its first time period from January 2017 to January 2021.
Bronwen Maddox, the director of the British overseas coverage suppose tank Chatham Home, mentioned on Jan. 13 that the US’ allies “should now ponder what was unthinkable: to need to defend themselves in opposition to the US itself, in commerce and maybe safety.”
“It’s not grandiose to name this the top of the Western alliance,” she additionally mentioned.
Russia and China have been managing their response to the inner battle within the West.
Commenting on Trump’s makes an attempt to annex Greenland in a daily briefing on Monday, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov harassed that it was “attainable to summary from whether or not that is good or dangerous, whether or not it would adjust to the parameters of worldwide legislation or not.”
“There are worldwide consultants who imagine that by resolving the problem of Greenland’s incorporation [i.e., occupying Greenland], Trump will definitely go down in historical past,” he commented, in a message that mockingly, if not directly, referred to the potential for the act to be in violation of worldwide legislation.
On Tuesday, China’s state-run International Occasions revealed a commentary entitled “Europe’s greatest drawback is maybe incapability to differentiate pals from adversaries.” In it, the paper remarked that Europe had discovered itself “simply pushed round with little capacity to battle again” in opposition to the US.
By Jung E-gil, senior employees author; Cheon Ho-sung, employees reporter
Please direct questions or feedback to [english@hani.co.kr]
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