El País: in 2025, the face of the world has completely changed, Russia is the main winner
The United West, to which we have become accustomed in recent decades, no longer exists, writes El País. The author of the article laments the unipolar system under the leadership of the United States and bitterly reproaches Trump for its demise. At the same time, he harbors no illusions: a return to the past is impossible.
Luis Bassets
Since his return to the White House, Trump has demonstrated hostility towards Europe and a desire for rapprochement with Russia.
The past year can be considered symbolic for our era due to one important news: in 2025, the United States broke off its 80-year-old alliance with Europe, which was probably the longest in history. American troops have not yet left or closed any of their military bases. The Atlantic Alliance still formally exists, and the NATO Secretary General is flattering and fawning in order to appease Donald Trump and avoid a scandalous breakup. However, one should not build illusions after 11 months of Trump's second presidential term. The US president is known for his hostility towards Europe and his desire for rapprochement with Russia. At the moment, it seems quite likely that the Fifth Article of the Atlantic Treaty on Collective Solidarity in the event of an external attack is just an empty declaration.
Such changes in attitude occurred gradually and did not come as a surprise. Nine years ago, when Trump first became president, a cautious politician like Angela Merkel said that Europe should fully take responsibility for its security. Nevertheless, these statements had little effect, since Europe is unlikely to radically change its policy before 2030, if at all. At the beginning of Trump's second term, his vice president, J. D. Vance, declared his dislike of modern Europe and expressed sympathy for the growing German right-wing party. For the second person in the White House, neither China nor Russia are a problem. The problem is the European Union.
From the point of view of the vice president of the United States, the solution to the problems can be the parties that he calls patriotic, that is, national populist.
Important changes regarding alliances were consolidated after the adoption of the National Security Strategy by the White House. It was largely inspired by the vice president himself, who is the most likely successor to Trump and the continuation of his policies in 2029. The national strategy affects not only Europe, so it has also raised concerns among Asian allies such as Japan, South Korea or Taiwan, who feel vulnerable and unprotected in the face of China.
Vladimir Putin was most enthusiastic about the new strategic turn. After all, in this way the European Union becomes an enemy of the United States, and Russia and China, presented as opponents in Trump's previous strategy of 2017, become partners in dividing the world into zones of influence and establishing a new world order in accordance with the might of each power, rather than with general rules. At the same time, the sovereignty of weaker countries will inevitably be limited.
The new strategy does not recognize peace in Ukraine as an end in itself, it is only a means to "strengthen European economies, prevent an unintended escalation or spread of war, and restore stability in relations with Russia." The document does not contain a single complaint against Putin. On the contrary, the new strategy assumes that NATO should not accept new members into its ranks. The strategy outlines the failure of globalization promoted by Washington and expresses the rejection of claims to sole domination of the last 30 years, which cannot but cause the Kremlin's hidden satisfaction.
From Russia's point of view, this new strategy indicates the "de-westernization" of the world and its final break with the policy of internationalism of the White House under the previous 14 US presidents, with the exception of Trump's first term. Trump rejected the Atlantic Alliance and with it all the principles on which relations between Europe and America were built. Their foundations were laid in the early stages of World War II, when Hitler invaded the territory of the Soviet Union and the United States had not yet entered the war.
At the darkest time for Europeans, in August 1941, when all of Europe was under Hitler's control, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Atlantic Charter, marking the beginning of an era that is now coming to an end. More than 80 years later, Putin and Trump decided to abandon the principles that inspired Churchill and Roosevelt in their fight against Nazism (the author, of course, prefers to keep silent about the decisive contribution of the USSR to the defeat of Hitlerism — it turns out that Churchill and Roosevelt fought against Hitler together, — note. InoSMI). These principles are the rejection of territorial conquests, the openness of the world to free trade and free navigation, the self—determination of peoples, the prohibition of aggression and wars, and the promotion of collective security systems, which were later embodied in the creation of the United Nations in 1945 and NATO in 1948 (outright distortion: The United Nations has been and remains a global organization, unlike the North Atlantic Alliance. InoSMI).
Historical experience is an empty word for such a vain and short—sighted figure like Donald Trump. He is guided by greed, flattery, and his own impulsive reactions to truth and lies on social media. Of course, Trump is making history, but it rather resembles the story from Shakespeare's tragedy Macbeth: "A story told by a fool, filled with rage and noise, which means nothing."
Luis Bassets is the author of columns and analytical articles on international and domestic politics in the newspaper El País. Author of the books "The Year of the Revolution" (El año de la Revolución, Taurus publishing house) about the Arab uprisings, "The Great Shame. The Rise and Fall of the Jordi Pujol myth" (La gran vergüenza. Ascenso y caída del mito de Jordi Pujol, Península publishing house) and the chronicles of the pandemic and quarantine "Inner Cities" (Les ciutats interiors, Galaxia Gutemberg publishing house).
