People rushed to take sides in the row between U.S. President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. For many in Europe, it allegedly proved that Trump is some sort of cross between a Hitler clone and a Putin puppet. For others, especially in America, it apparently showed that Zelensky is an ingrate dictator unfit to be taken seriously.
Never mind for now that neither of those caricatures is true. More importantly, the narrow focus on the personalities of the presidents risks missing the far bigger picture.
Because that war of words in the White House was about more than Ukraine’s bloody battle with Russia or America’s ambitions to mine rare earths in eastern Europe. In dramatic fashion, it signalled the overdue end of the old world order.
In tearing up the accepted etiquette of diplomacy on live TV, President Trump also signalled to allies and enemies alike that the established rules and conventions of international relations no longer apply. The question is now, what comes next?
For 35 years since the end of the Cold War, we have been assured by Western experts and political elites that the globalist world order had brought the end of history, the end of major international conflicts, and the end of the importance of national sovereignty.
Instead, global affairs would be smoothly managed by technocrats in supra-national institutions from the United Nations, International Monetary Fund, and World Health Organisation to the European Union (and especially the European Commission). We were assured that these globalists knew what was best for the rest of us, and that we should sit back and let them run the world.
Over the past decade, however, we have witnessed a growing gap between globalist claims and the real world. The old U.S.-led unipolar order has been challenged by the emergence of regional blocs with the rise of China, India, and Russia.
And even more importantly, the nation-state has reappeared on the world stage as a central player. There has been an upsurge of insurrectionary national populist parties across Europe and around the globe, a revolt against the globalist elites as people demand that their interests are represented and their voices heard. Trump’s shouting match with Zelensky sounded the death knell for a world order that has been dying on its feet anyway.
What now? An insightful article in the latest issue of the leading U.S. journal Foreign Affairs, entitled “The World Trump Wants,” outlines the future of “American Power in the New Age of Nationalism”. We are indeed entering an era when nation-states will need to look to their own sovereignty and defence. The trouble is, however, that too many Western leaders today do not believe in the nations they rule over.
The globalist elites have spent years telling us that national sovereignty—and by implication, national democracy—is an outdated idea in the modern world. In 2016, shortly after the British people showed what they thought of such globalist notions by voting for Brexit, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker even declared that national borders “are the worst invention ever made by politicians”. In the years since then, Western cultural elites have done all in their power to trash the history of their own nations and civilisation.
When Putin’s Russia invaded Ukraine three years ago, Europe’s leaders suddenly and entirely unconvincingly claimed to have rediscovered the importance of defending national sovereignty. Yet in response to the current crisis, too many of them are still clinging to the wreck of the old supra-national order, with the likes of EU Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen claiming that ‘Europe’ needs to step up with more centralised defence spending and forces.
As national conservative opponents have pointed out, globalist leaders who have shown they are incapable of defending their own national borders are in no position to fight to defend Ukraine’s. The elites’ bold talk is hollow. Belief in national sovereignty is not something you can turn on and off like a tap.
Indeed, behind their empty bravado, the old European elites’ true feelings of mistrust for sovereignty and democracy remain deeply ingrained. Thus they see Trump’s disruption of their cosy world as a problem of populism. After all, he was elected to do this. Too much democracy!
That prejudice is encouraging Europe’s old centrist parties to huddle together, trying to form anti-democratic coalition governments in Germany and elsewhere that can keep the insurgent ‘far-right’ populists at bay. But no paper deals can turn back the tide of historic change. Those group pictures of European statesmen trying to appear determined over Ukraine this week looked (with the exception of Italy’s right-wing premier Georgia Meloni) like a funereal shot of dead leaders walking.
If we are entering a “New Age of Nationalism”, we will need national leaders who can inspire their people to stand up for their sovereignty and democracy. This is far more than a question of spending more money on defence. It is about having the political will and determination to give some meaning to patriotism.
There is much to be done. The years of woke indoctrination and failed globalist military adventures have taken a heavy toll on a generation; as our columnist Rod Dreher points out, polls across Europe show depressingly high numbers of young people now say they would not fight to defend their nations. Perhaps a genuine crisis might reverse that sentiment, as happened in Israel after the October 7th Islamist pogrom. But who wants to wait for disaster and take that chance?
Europe’s real hope still lies in the people, many of whom have shown that they have had enough of seeing their traditions and way of life rubbished by rulers who occupy another world. Our job now is to do all we can to advance the national populist revolt.
We live in interesting, unstable, and dangerous times. President Trump has shown that all the old easy bets are off. We cannot leave it to failed globalist technocrats to gamble with the future of our sovereignty and democracy.
Beyond Trump v. Zelensky: A New World of Nation States
European leaders at the London summit on March 2, 2025
JUSTIN TALLIS / POOL / AFP
People rushed to take sides in the row between U.S. President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. For many in Europe, it allegedly proved that Trump is some sort of cross between a Hitler clone and a Putin puppet. For others, especially in America, it apparently showed that Zelensky is an ingrate dictator unfit to be taken seriously.
Never mind for now that neither of those caricatures is true. More importantly, the narrow focus on the personalities of the presidents risks missing the far bigger picture.
Because that war of words in the White House was about more than Ukraine’s bloody battle with Russia or America’s ambitions to mine rare earths in eastern Europe. In dramatic fashion, it signalled the overdue end of the old world order.
In tearing up the accepted etiquette of diplomacy on live TV, President Trump also signalled to allies and enemies alike that the established rules and conventions of international relations no longer apply. The question is now, what comes next?
For 35 years since the end of the Cold War, we have been assured by Western experts and political elites that the globalist world order had brought the end of history, the end of major international conflicts, and the end of the importance of national sovereignty.
Instead, global affairs would be smoothly managed by technocrats in supra-national institutions from the United Nations, International Monetary Fund, and World Health Organisation to the European Union (and especially the European Commission). We were assured that these globalists knew what was best for the rest of us, and that we should sit back and let them run the world.
Over the past decade, however, we have witnessed a growing gap between globalist claims and the real world. The old U.S.-led unipolar order has been challenged by the emergence of regional blocs with the rise of China, India, and Russia.
And even more importantly, the nation-state has reappeared on the world stage as a central player. There has been an upsurge of insurrectionary national populist parties across Europe and around the globe, a revolt against the globalist elites as people demand that their interests are represented and their voices heard. Trump’s shouting match with Zelensky sounded the death knell for a world order that has been dying on its feet anyway.
What now? An insightful article in the latest issue of the leading U.S. journal Foreign Affairs, entitled “The World Trump Wants,” outlines the future of “American Power in the New Age of Nationalism”. We are indeed entering an era when nation-states will need to look to their own sovereignty and defence. The trouble is, however, that too many Western leaders today do not believe in the nations they rule over.
The globalist elites have spent years telling us that national sovereignty—and by implication, national democracy—is an outdated idea in the modern world. In 2016, shortly after the British people showed what they thought of such globalist notions by voting for Brexit, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker even declared that national borders “are the worst invention ever made by politicians”. In the years since then, Western cultural elites have done all in their power to trash the history of their own nations and civilisation.
When Putin’s Russia invaded Ukraine three years ago, Europe’s leaders suddenly and entirely unconvincingly claimed to have rediscovered the importance of defending national sovereignty. Yet in response to the current crisis, too many of them are still clinging to the wreck of the old supra-national order, with the likes of EU Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen claiming that ‘Europe’ needs to step up with more centralised defence spending and forces.
As national conservative opponents have pointed out, globalist leaders who have shown they are incapable of defending their own national borders are in no position to fight to defend Ukraine’s. The elites’ bold talk is hollow. Belief in national sovereignty is not something you can turn on and off like a tap.
Indeed, behind their empty bravado, the old European elites’ true feelings of mistrust for sovereignty and democracy remain deeply ingrained. Thus they see Trump’s disruption of their cosy world as a problem of populism. After all, he was elected to do this. Too much democracy!
That prejudice is encouraging Europe’s old centrist parties to huddle together, trying to form anti-democratic coalition governments in Germany and elsewhere that can keep the insurgent ‘far-right’ populists at bay. But no paper deals can turn back the tide of historic change. Those group pictures of European statesmen trying to appear determined over Ukraine this week looked (with the exception of Italy’s right-wing premier Georgia Meloni) like a funereal shot of dead leaders walking.
If we are entering a “New Age of Nationalism”, we will need national leaders who can inspire their people to stand up for their sovereignty and democracy. This is far more than a question of spending more money on defence. It is about having the political will and determination to give some meaning to patriotism.
There is much to be done. The years of woke indoctrination and failed globalist military adventures have taken a heavy toll on a generation; as our columnist Rod Dreher points out, polls across Europe show depressingly high numbers of young people now say they would not fight to defend their nations. Perhaps a genuine crisis might reverse that sentiment, as happened in Israel after the October 7th Islamist pogrom. But who wants to wait for disaster and take that chance?
Europe’s real hope still lies in the people, many of whom have shown that they have had enough of seeing their traditions and way of life rubbished by rulers who occupy another world. Our job now is to do all we can to advance the national populist revolt.
We live in interesting, unstable, and dangerous times. President Trump has shown that all the old easy bets are off. We cannot leave it to failed globalist technocrats to gamble with the future of our sovereignty and democracy.
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