As Donald Trump belittles other countries, Europe must replace US as global beacon of freedom

Those countries accounted for 60 per cent of global military investment. In cash terms that’s $1.6 trillion (£1.2 trillion). Every region of the world is increasing arms expenditure. Spending on military personnel and weaponry is set on an upward trajectory for at least the next ten years.

The reasons are obvious. China seeks to cement its place as the Asia-Pacific superpower. India wants to be the alpha player on the sub-continent. Vladimir Putin’s drive to create “greater Russia” is, if anything, accelerating.

Donald Trump is substituting Pax Americana for “America First”, thus questioning the USA’s 80-year role as democracy’s shield across the globe and its leadership of the Nato alliance. Trump believes America can only be great again if it shows it can flex its muscles as the world’s strongest political, economic and military power. Allies are not necessarily required.

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Trump’s tariff wars

Russia’s poking of the resolve of European states and Trump’s hesitancy to be 100 per cent committed to Nato is prompting European governments to increase their defence budgets. In the UK, Keir Starmer’s government has increased defence spending by nearly 2.5 per cent to almost £60 billion a year.

Tensions are on the rise globally. The dialogue between great nations is less accommodating and more combustible than it so recently was. Trump’s tariff wars have shifted the world’s axis. And emerging from the new America is a form of Christian fundamentalism that’s staking a claim to be the world’s moral arbiter. It is laying down a challenge to Islam and secularism.

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We are in a 21st-century arms race that’s also about culture, religion, systems of government and how the planet organises itself. Militarism, coupled with the global rise in nationalism and authoritarianism and the decline in the status and influence of the post-Second World War institutions of the rules-based international order, presents us with a potentially catastrophic international relations environment.

In late September, in his rambling speech to the United Nations General Assembly, Trump questioned the very existence of the UN. His foreign policy approach has seen China, Russia and India lead a new grouping that goes by the name of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO). Seen alongside the BRICS movement – ten nations led by Brazil, Russia, India and China – we see the leaching away of the power and influence of the Western democracies and the emergence of new spheres of influence.

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‘Stars and stripes only’

Europe, including the UK, can no longer rely on the USA. One of the great strengths of what was the Special Relationship between Britain and the US was that British Prime Ministers could speak to American presidents as firm but not uncritical friends. Now even the mildest criticism of America’s foreign policies risks petulant retaliation by Trump.

Currently, Europe, including the UK, are simply observers in this new global complexity. Trump has shocked the West and the world. Most critically, he has fractured eight decades of certainty for Europe. Our best, richest and most trusted friend has picked up the ball and is playing a solo game on a pitch that’s reserved for the ‘stars and stripes only’.

As things stand, we in the UK and Europe (we are all Europeans) are not even in the game. We are scrambling to keep Trump appeased. He has been allowed to destabilise the world, fracture alliances, weaken the world’s human health defences, and kill off American commitments to fighting global warming. He uses language that insults and belittles other nations. The traditions, mechanisms and institutions designed to keep the world from war and foster the conditions for peace, security and prosperity have been marginalised and diminished.

Russian threats

This is a dangerous time. If you want proof, look at a statement from Russia’s Ambassador to France on September 25. Alexey Meshkov said that if a Russian military aircraft were brought down inside Western airspace that would be considered an act of war. Russian planes have frequently entered allied skies in recent months. The ambassador’s statement amounts to an ‘I dare you’ threat.

It is becoming increasingly urgent that global tensions are reduced. But how is this to be done? We have too much to lose to allow such a situation to continue. The West is rudderless and leaderless. If an individual cannot be found who has the necessary qualities (and such people are extremely rare) then we must look to creating the circumstances that can change the world’s mood from fear, suspicion and nervous fingers on triggers to one that reduces the temperature of international affairs.

Such an initiative might be best led by a small nation, one that is no military or economic threat to the great powers. Perhaps an Ireland or a Denmark or a Malta could offer to host a summit charged with mapping routes towards revitalising global support for the UN or unifying the democracies of Europe to deliver a declaration reaffirming their commitment to peace.

We need a statement of what European civilisation stands for, so that its peoples know what they might be asked to defend. So that the world knows where Europe stands and that it is a beacon for freedom. That was once America’s job, but it has abdicated the role. We must look to ourselves.

Martin Roche sits on the Executive Committee of the European Movement in Scotland. He is a graduate in politics and international relations from the University of Aberdeen and had a 35-year career in international public relations.