The U.S. government’s new National Security Strategy, NSS, refers openly to Europe’s long-term economic decline which weakens the continent’s ability to maintain a military, and even threatens its status as a cohesive political entity.
Europe is fragmented into two halves, the resilient east and the decaying west. While the Eastern countries will continue to be European in the traditional sense, Western Europe, from Spain to Sweden, is plagued by demographic upheaval, economic decline, and fatal de-Christianization. Should present trends continue, in 20 years or less western Europe’s demographic changes turn large swaths of the continent into a patchwork of Islamic nations. Those nations, in turn, shift European politics in a direction that is antithetical to friendly relations with the United States. Therefore, it is far from obvious whether certain European countries will have economies and militaries strong enough to remain reliable allies.
If this is Europe’s future, then its fallout in the global political arena will be immeasurable. With countries like Sweden, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, and Spain leading the Islamization, those countries will in all likelihood also adopt the anti-American views of radical Islam.
By exposing Europe’s political leadership as weak and listless, Trump has put the question of the continent’s future at the top of the news cycle. He has done formidable work to expose the need for a transformation of the U.S.-Europe relations; the question is if the political elite in Western Europe hears his message and is willing to do what is necessary to save their continent.