Leaders of the business and political worlds gathered this week in Davos, Switzerland, for the annual World Economic Forum. Davos has long been lampooned for seeming to be a get-together of elites, each of whom seems more out of touch than the next. This time, it particularly revealed the gulf separating many European leaders from reality.
President Donald Trump and Greenland were on the tip of everyone’s tongue. His desire to secure Greenland and, in particular, his increasingly unhinged rhetoric about seizing the strategically vital island prompted understandable concern from many world leaders. Trump, however, announced at Davos that the U.S. military wouldn’t use force to secure Greenland and that a deal had been reached.
This, perhaps, is to be expected from a mercurial deal maker. But Davos showed that some European heads of government also subsist on a steady diet of delusions. Many are concerned about America’s increasing unpredictability, but far more seem upset that a U.S. administration is asking them to pay their fair share.
Things are not what they once were. The security and economic architecture built in the aftermath of World War II is fraying. The Cold War ended three decades ago. Yet much of Europe has continued to bank on the United States footing their defense bills, even as they often fail to meet the minimum NATO spending requirement.
More than a decade after Russia first invaded Ukraine in 2014, remaking the map of Europe for the first time in decades, many still decline to shoulder their share of the defense burden. Worse, some have enabled Russia and its ally, China, through trade and energy deals. This is not and for some time has not been a sustainable arrangement. European leaders, however, resent the implication.
Change is hard, but some take it harder than others. At Davos, Finnish President Alexander Stubb said Europe can “unequivocally” defend itself. This isn’t true, not even close. And recent events prove it.
In a show of defiance to Trump, Denmark launched Operation Arctic Endurance, sending military contingents from 12 nations to Greenland. France sent 15 soldiers. Ditto Germany, although they didn’t stay long. Norway sent two, and Sweden three. The Netherlands sent a single officer. Many of the troops arrived on chartered commercial flights. The deployment was called “symbolic.” In a way, it is. It shows a continent that hasn’t taken its defense seriously for a very long time, preferring to rely on the U.S. instead. The Trump administration has tried to nudge, even drag, its European partners to reality, but there’s been some kicking and screaming.
Not, thankfully, from NATO’s Secretary General, Mark Rutte. At Davos, Rutte hailed Trump’s efforts, saying the president “forced … Europe to step up” and pay more. He observed that with growing threats from China, “it is only logical for them to expect us in Europe to step up, over time.”
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Rutte seemed to be the rare European leader at Davos who could see the forest, not just the trees. French President Emanuel Macron and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney gave speeches that noted the rapidly changing global environment, but effectively called for more of the same. A WEF poll shortly before the meeting cited climate change, not totalitarian states or terrorist groups, as the greatest threat facing the world for the next 10 years.
Many still hope for business as usual. But pretending not to see the obvious isn’t a strategy. The world and its strategic security questions are changing, whether European leaders like it or not. The sooner they reconcile themselves to reality, the better — for them and for the U.S.
