Europe cannot isolate itself from the US, but it is forced to accept a reality. About “a condition of our survival”

The speech of the Secretary of State Marco Rubio from Munich meant the x-ray of a moment that we are going through and that we can no longer ignore. The past that we thought would be our eternal future is, at this moment, just the past. History in motion, to return to the classic Aronian reading, forces us to lucidly examine the current era of collective anxiety, writes professor Ioan Stanomir in an opinion article.

“The revisionist axis of the powers attacking the Western world has managed to prove its effectiveness”

Finally, the era after the Russian invasion of Ukraine was a crossing of the Rubicon. Universal organizations, such as the “United Nations”, have proven their irrelevance. More than a road block, it is about the culmination of a lasting involution. The aggressor met only a weak global reaction of condemnation. The revisionist axis of the powers attacking the Western world has managed to prove its effectiveness. Today, Russia is in its fifth year of war. Chinese support is responsible for the continuity of the war effort.

The last years are the ones in which the illusions enthusiastically cultivated by a pacifist European elite were gradually abandoned. Rivalry between nations is a reality, and armies exist to protect free peoples. The perspective of universal and eternal peace, based on free exchange and altruistic cooperation, is a noble desire, but one that fuels a reflex of collective weakness.

“The return to realism also implies the acceptance of an elementary fact”

Discouragement becomes, in this era of moving tectonic plates, the alternative to capitulation. The meaning of deterrence is the same now as it was in the “cold war” decades: establishing a security perimeter whose violation would be costly for a potential aggressor.

Deterrence cannot be separated from military power, and this is unimaginable in the absence of the industrial base to be its foundation. The return to realism also implies the acceptance of an elementary fact: nations like communist China use their mineral resources and technological capacity as a weapon through which they undermine the West, perceived as a rival. The direction that the United States is taking is the right one – reducing the dependency that can be fatal for us.

Discouragement should not be seen as an irresponsible invitation to aggression. On the contrary, it is the one that allows our states to be able to maintain their freedom of negotiation. Diplomacy has a natural complement in deterrence. Evoking the United States is, once again, necessary. Confronting a criminal regime like the Iranian one forces armed mobilization: negotiations conducted from positions of vulnerability are the path to capitulation and catastrophe.

Why invoking the nuclear scenario is legitimate

Discouragement in the new age of collective restlessness summons nations to overcome illusions and inhibitions.

Invoking the most formidable of the deterrence scenarios, the nuclear scenario, is legitimate, given that, on the European theater, Russia moved nuclear-capable missiles to Belarus.

In the end, the nuclear weapon can be the only barrier against a potential aggressor. The argument suggested here is not an irrational or bellicose one. He only appeals to a documentable reality: Russia's permanent nuclear blackmail against our nations.

“Europe cannot isolate itself from the US, but it is forced to accept the reality of an obvious military weakness”

The era we are going through forces us to rethink our founding assumptions. In order to survive, states are called to defend themselves individually and create alliances. The new American strategy is the framework within which we must act, strategically. Europe cannot isolate itself from the United States, but it is forced to accept the reality of obvious military weakness. Arming is a condition of our survival.

The conversation about the future must refuse the fatalism of resignation. Lucidity can guide our nations on a path of prudent and visionary courage. Discouragement is the barrier we raise in the way of our enemies. In order to move forward, we need the pavement to protect our free existence.

The opinion article was originally published on the Contributors.ro platform.