James Joyner comments on a piece at the BBC:
Honestly, while I concede that Gardner’s focus is on the “international politics stage,†the main setbacks for the West have come from democratic backsliding in so many countries. The Trump phenomenon in the United States is of course the most prominent but we’ve seen growing support for far-right, anti-democratic parties across much of Western Europe. That’s a far greater danger to Western values and influence than any of those listed in the article.
I commend the post to your attention as well as a comment there by Michael Reynolds which might be summarized as “we’re doing just fine”. I think he’s overstating the damages suffered by Russia and understating how disastrous the war has been for Ukraine but otherwise I’m in material agreement with him.
But consider the original piece from the point-of-view of the ethnic nation-states of Europe! The immigration they have received over the last decade from the Middle East and Africa has been nothing short of catastrophic for them. France has based its society on the notion of “Frenchness” for well over a century and that is being challenged. Many of their new immigrants don’t consider themselves to be French and don’t care to be French. In Germany the unemployment rate for immigrants is at least 20% higher than for the native-born while in Sweden it’s twice as high.
Nearly all of those fleeing the unrest in the Sahel are going to Europe and that shows few signs of abating. That will be a challenge for the foreseeable future.
Note, too, that despite the war in Ukraine and whatever threat posed to them by Russia defense spending in most European countries is about what it was as a percentage of GDP in 2000. Either they don’t think that Russia poses a threat to them or they’re clinging to the idea that we’ll defend them. Increasing their military spending threatens the government benefits to which they’ve become accustomed. No wonder uncertainty not to mention instability in the United States is concerning to them.
Per the WSJ they increased defense spending 13% in 2022, but they dont have the manufacturing ability to increase quickly. Per Defenseone they spent, IIRC, a recent record on investments to increase production ability.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/europes-defense-dilemma-to-buy-or-not-to-buy-american-1576c2f4
From France24- “Almost two years after the start of the war, Germany has gradually emerged as Kyiv’s leading military supporter in Europe. According to the Kiel Institute’s Ukraine support tracker, Berlin has committed over €17.1 billion in military aid to Ukraine since January 24, 2022. This is certainly not on a par with Washington’s €42 billion, but it is more than twice the UK’s investment (7 billion) and 34 times that of France.” Sounds like they have already spent about $20-$30 billion of their $100 billion special budget.
Steve
BTW, nice piece by Evans at War on the Rocks. (He started the place.)
https://warontherocks.com/2023/12/reversing-americas-ruinous-support-for-israels-assault-on-gaza/
Steve
Well written and moving.
But yet fails to address the issue that makes this conflict different.
War is hell, America has waged war against Germany, Japan, Italy, Spain, Korea, Vietnam, and many other countries. Yet we do not hate them and they appear not to hate us.
For Palestinians, hatred of the Jew is an imperative, a constant, an embedded pillar of the culture and faith.
Firmness, followed by the olive branch and reconstruction will only buy Israel time and Netanyahu knows this.
He’s trying to buy as much time as possible since a solution would require genocide .
Palestinians are diseased by hate, why Jordan and Egypt don’t want them.
Like termites, you treat for them every few years because they’ll never stop.