Europe faced with biggest choice of century

The world, much sooner than expected, deviated from its path of creating a global village, where people would interact and coexist peacefully, to that of becoming a chaotic place teeming with violence and instability.

The 56th Munich Security Conference (February 14-16) conveyed a clear message to the world: “The instability in the world has reached its highest level of since the Cold War.”

In other words, the world’s biggest security conference stressed that the international community is currently standing on the edge of darkness in terms of ensuring its security, and is faced with a situation that is a realistic simulation of its circumstances prior to the World War I and II.

While, at present, Europe acknowledges that the West’s hegemony over the global system has come to an end and has accepted multilateralism as a realistic solution, Trump’s America is insistently seeking to return the global system’s leadership to the West by pursuing the strategy of “America First” and stupidest policies.

This comes as a large number of realistic European leaders still admit that Trump’s unilateralism has been doomed to failure.

On the other hand, while in the 56th Munich Security Conference, the US delegation described China as the main cause of the world’s instability, most world leaders, particularly those of the European partners of the US, blamed Washington as well as Trump and his “America First” policy.

In fact, the reasons why the dream of creating a global village has, at present, turned into a nightmare where the world has become a scene of absolute chaos can be searched for in Trump’s coming to power and the unbridled Trumpism.

By following his racist “America First” policy, Trump is currently treading the same path Adolf Hitler walked prior to the World War II.

This comes as the world currently finds itself in a political limbo and faced with the dilemma whether to continue granting concessions to Trump or stand against him.

Experience shows that concessions not only fail to satiate Trump but make him more avaricious for fulfilling his dream of establishing a global dictatorship.

At present, the world is gradually realizing this fact more than ever. Meanwhile, as the most frustrated member of the international community in the face of Trump, Europe is finding itself in a very difficult situation.

It either has to acquiesce to the humiliating policy of obeying the US, and thus bid farewell to the dream of being an independent Europe, or prepares itself for paying the heavy cost of separating itself from Washington.

In the current year, Europe choosing between bearing the costs of becoming a waning power or those of making its independence dream come true, would be the biggest political choice of the century, a point correctly underlined by the EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, in the 56th Munich Security Conference.

* Hossein Ziaee is an Iranian freelance journalist.

Source: Iran Daily