The European Way

We are are entering a multipolar world. The United States is shifting towards strategic independence and demanding that Europe assume greater responsibility for its own security. China is rapidly expanding its military and economic power in preparation for potential conflicts. Russia continues to challenge the European security order through aggression in Ukraine and influence operations.

Europe can no longer rely on automatic external protection. It must stand on its own.

Yet Europe has every asset required to succeed: a large, highly educated population, world-leading universities, the largest single market on earth, and a civilization heritage of more then two millennia.

Recent European initiatives—the Chips Act, the AI Act, the Critical Raw Materials Act, the Net-Zero Industry Act, and ongoing efforts to create sovereign capabilities in cloud computing, payments, and defense technology—are beginning to unlock this potential.

The time has come for Europe to achieve genuine strategic autonomy: independent defense capabilities, technological sovereignty in semiconductors, AI, quantum technologies, satellite navigation, and critical supply chains. Ending excessive dependence on external powers is not anti-American; it is simply the mature choice for a continent of 450 million people.

Europe must find its strategic confidence. This path serves our citizens best and offers the world a model: a major power that combines competitive strength with vibrant democracy, robust social protection, and unwavering commitment to the rules-based international order we helped build after 1945—an order dedicated to peace, lawful dispute resolution, the protection of smaller states, and the universal defense of human rights.