After World War 2, the term “Pax Americana” was used to describe the United States’ alliance with European countries in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). “Pax” is Latin for “peace” (similar to “paz” in Spanish or “pace” in Italian), and the idea behind the term was that together, the United States, Canada and Europe were preventing the type of widespread carnage that occurred during two world wars. But according to Never Trump conservative Paul Rosenzweig, U.S. President Donald Trump has undermined the “American Peace” so badly that longtime allies now “distrust” and even “fear” the U.S.
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Writing for the conservative website The Bulwark, Rosenzweig — an attorney who served in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) under former President George W. Bush — lays out a variety of reasons why longtime allies are growing increasingly distrustful of the U.S. during Trump’s second presidency.
“For more than 80 years,” Rosenzweig explains in his Bulwark article, “the Pax Americana has protected the world. Imperfect and incomplete as it was, American reliability was a pillar of Cold War stability. NATO membership and the American nuclear umbrella were, to a large degree, the reason for European safety from Russian threats. American alliances — including mutual defense treaties — plus American pressure also allowed Japan, South Korea, and the Philippines to democratize. Our strategic support, albeit in a more ambiguous way, was also the basis for Taiwanese security.”
Rosenzweig continues, “But the underpinning for all of that was American trustworthiness — the faith and confidence our allies had in America’s promise that we would come to their aid when needed. That faith and confidence is fading.”
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Signs that “faith” in the U.S. is “diminishing” among longtime allies, Rosenzweig warns, “are large and obvious.”
“Recently, Norway, a NATO founding member, became the ninth European country to sign up for French nuclear protection,” the former DHS official observes. “Given the Russian threats and the broadly faltering trust in U.S. reliability, France has offered to extend its nuclear umbrella — with its roughly 290 nuclear warheads — to protect all of Europe as a replacement for American promises. But our allies are not only less willing to rely on and trust America. They are also coming to see America as a threat. Association with America is now a risk that needs to be taken into account and, if possible, reduced.”
Rosenzweig continues, “Here’s one example: Increasingly European governments are moving away from U.S. tech giants as service providers…. But the more insidious and troubling problem is that the belligerence of the Trump administration towards the continent has generated fears that bellicose language will be translated into hostile action. After Trump’s sanctions against the International Criminal Court cut off six judges from their banks, credit cards, and even e-mail addresses, Europeans have a legitimate fear that that Silicon Valley giants could be compelled to cut off access to critical services for a whole government or even a whole country. It’s no wonder that Europe is, increasingly, seeking to reduce its digital dependence on the United States.”
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