OPINION: Up and at It, Europe

In the wake of the abysmal treatment of a man who has spent three years defending his people from being erased in an imperial war of aggression, it’s hard not to express apoplectic emotions.

The ferment of irritation is compounded by the US Vice President, who derided unnamed “random” countries for proposing to send troops to help a ceasefire in Ukraine. If the “random” countries were not among those who sacrificed their sons and daughters to help the US after 9/11, then who are they?

However, this is no time for being dragged along by the ungracious spectacle of Trump. There is work to do. Perhaps to steady ourselves, we might take some simple advice from that ancient European student of history, Thucydides: “Self-control is the chief element in self-respect, and self-respect is the chief element in courage.” Self-control is exactly what Europe needs now, but it also needs calm, determined courage.

For the British, the current situation is not altogether unfamiliar. In 1939, although the country received troops, financial and material supplies from its then extant empire, in spirit it stood alone. Mainland Europe would fall by mid-1940 and the US, a little like today, would not commit itself to the battle for freedom. As Churchill observed on May 8, 1945, Victory in Europe Day: “We were the first, in this ancient island, to draw the sword against tyranny.”

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The situations are similar, but dissimilar in one important respect. Ukraine is not fighting alone, surrounded by conquered or apathetic lands. To its west is a continent populated by over half a billion people committed to the ideas of liberal democracy, the rule of law and the free way of life. The continent’s economic, and therefore military potential in time of crisis, is vast. A GDP on the order of 30 trillion dollars underpins this enormous geographical expanse of liberty.

This superpower is not a flash in the pan that appeared on the world stage in recent years. It runs on the heritage of ideas and sacrifices that stretch back to the heroic deeds of ancient Athenians defending their ideas of liberty against autocratic domination in the straits of Salamis in 480 BC. The Renaissance, the Enlightenment, millennia of toil and thought undergird what this continent is.

Imagine if an unconquered continent with modern Europe’s prosperity and power had existed in 1939, a sort of imaginary Atlantis to the west of Britain, ready to spring into action alongside its British allies with an economic force greater than the Axis powers. Today, this is no fantasy. To the west of Ukraine lies such a place.

What can Europe do?

To avoid the laborious EU bureaucracy which serves a purpose in a consensus-focused peacetime, but opens itself up to dangerous veto in moments of crisis, European nations should achieve defense decisions where possible outside the strictures of the EU. Its plans for a ramp up in defense are welcome but surely need to be implemented without delay. A transition to moderate war economies and a more energized behind-the-scenes sense of urgency are the obvious steps that will make a difference. Unneeded are the public theatrics of “coalitions of the willing” and “family photos.” Just get on and do the job.

The disparaging comments from commentators and politicians in the US about European capabilities do not emerge from a vacuum; they have condensed from decades of our lassitude and the acceptance of US hegemony over the defensive posture of our continent and our relatively poor commitment to it.

Rather than criticize and look shocked, we should respond in a positive and constructive mood. In a departure from the Budapest Memorandum, a coalition of European countries should offer Ukraine binding security guarantees to position Europe as a reliable ally equal to the US in its geopolitical influence and as a mediator in ending the war. In short, it is only when Europe no longer needs “backstops” from the US that we will have achieved sufficient security.

In accepting the need for a US backstop to security guarantees, we have opened ourselves up to being led along by the current crop of excuses for inaction across the Atlantic. They remind me of those feeble contortions we all came up with at school to avoid being drafted into the compulsory cricket match: “My grandma is ill,” “My pet terrapin has died,” “I sprained my little finger,” “Witherby hit me on the head with a chair and I feel faint.”

Instead, it’s “Zelensky didn’t wear a tie,” “Ukraine is far away,” “He didn’t show enough respect,” “They temporarily stopped elections,” “They’ve got some corruption in government,” “We didn’t hear thank-you.”

Enough of this.

If Europe will step up to this historic moment, then it will win the peace not only for Europe and Ukraine, but also it will solidify the respect in which it is held by the US.

It is worth revisiting a speech given by Winston Churchill in the ruins of Europe in 1946 during which he envisaged a new European federation. His vision of a united Europe has been realized, but his insistence that this was not merely about creating a peaceful union, but about Europe waking to its full potential as a force for good in the world has most certainly not.

The years after the Second World War were the time to bring into existence the structural edifice that was necessary to secure European prosperity. This has largely, despite the odd step back and some growing pains, been stupendously successful. Surely, now, this very moment, is the time when we should embark upon the second phase of this project, which is to wield this leviathan of economic and intellectual strength to the betterment of humanity.

That requires not merely the internal wherewithal among Europeans to work together, which was the motor of the first stage of development, but the confidence to overcome our guilt about our imperial past and understand that the modern European vision that we offer is one gleefully aspired to by many people across the globe. Our immigration challenges are partially the product of this relative Garden of Eden that Europe has nurtured and grown.

Churchill’s speech was written for a world order lying in the shattered rubble of 19th-century European power, but his hope and his vision for Europe must finally be realized if we are not to collapse back into another era of catastrophe:

“If Europe is to be saved from infinite misery, and indeed from final doom, there must be this act of faith in the European family, this act of oblivion against all crimes and follies of the past. Can the peoples of Europe rise to the heights of the soul and of the instinct and spirit of man? If they could, the wrongs and injuries which have been inflicted would have been washed away on all sides by the miseries which have been endured.

Is there any need for further floods of agony? Is the only lesson of history to be that mankind is unteachable? Let there be justice, mercy and freedom. The peoples have only to will it and all will achieve their heart’s desire…

Let Europe arise!”

The views expressed in this opinion article are the author’s and not necessarily those of Kyiv Post.