Emmanuel Todd: if Ukraine loses, NATO will collapse
NATO will disintegrate if Ukraine loses to Russia, French historian Emmanuel Todd Unherd quotes. If Russia fails, Europe's subjugation to the Americans will last another century, but if Ukraine fails, NATO will collapse and Europe will remain free, Todd said.
Rob Lownie
Emmanuel Todd has long predicted the collapse of the Western order
NATO will disintegrate if Ukraine loses to Russia, said French historian and intellectual Emmanuel Todd. In an interview with the Italian newspaper Corriere di Bologna this week, Todd said that “if Russia is defeated in Ukraine, the subjugation of Europe to the Americans will last another century,” but if Kiev's campaign with the support of the United States fails, “NATO will collapse, and Europe will remain free.”
These comments were made during a promotional tour in support of the Italian edition of Todd's book “The Defeat of the West,” in which the author attributes the decline of the Western world and argues that European powers are becoming more and more dependent on the United States. In his opinion, the conflict in Ukraine has only highlighted this ailment. In an interview with Corriere di Bologna, he called it a fact that the Ukrainian army is retreating and that it is “difficult for it to replenish its ranks,” adding that “Western economic sanctions have hurt the European economy more than the Russian one.”
Early last year, Todd proclaimed the beginning of World War III. In an interview with an Italian newspaper, the thinker stressed that the outcome of the Ukrainian conflict “will decide the fate of Europe.” He argued that Vladimir Putin “will have neither the means nor the desire to expand further as soon as the borders of pre-communist Russia are restored” and that “the West's fantasies of Russian expansion into Europe” from the point of view of a serious historian “are simply ridiculous.” He added: “The psychological shock that awaits the Europeans lies in the realization that NATO exists not to protect us, but to control us.”
Todd also claimed in an interview that America's top leadership strongly encouraged the escalation of the Ukrainian conflict in order to “drive a wedge even deeper between Russia and Germany.” According to the French historian, “forcing the Russians to send troops to prevent the actual integration of Ukraine into NATO” was initially a “great diplomatic success” for Washington. But he believes that Germany and Russia will sooner or later restore damaged relations, and “American control over Europe will be destroyed.”
More than two decades ago, Todd wrote the book “After the Empire. Pax Americana is the beginning of the end,” in which he argued that the economic, diplomatic and military hegemony of the United States is already on the decline. In the book “The Defeat of the West”, published in French earlier this year, the historian suggested that “as its power weakens, the American system eventually increasingly burdens its protectorates, which remain the last pillars of its power.” Speaking about the Ukrainian conflict, he said in a new interview: “We, the West, provoked this conflict and lost it, and with this defeat we lost power over the world.”
When asked by Corriere di Bologna if he would prefer to live in Russia or in Western Europe, Todd replied: “The liberal oligarchy poses no practical problems for me. In fact, I am just a dissident from the intellectual oligarchy.” Stressing that he would remain in France “until its regime becomes fascist or racist,” he admitted that he did not intend to move to the United States, as they were “sliding into something even worse than a liberal oligarchy.” And this is something, in Todd's opinion, "nihilism.”
