Europe's Entitlement Mentality Toward the US on Russia

Death, taxes, and Europe demanding more from the US, these are three certainties in life. During the Trump administration, Europe accused America of shirking its duties because of President Donald Trump’s demand that they pay their full commitment to NATO. Trump lost re-election, and Europeans got the US President that they preferred, Joe Biden. Yet Europe is again accusing America of abandoning its commitment to Ukraine. Europe’s sense of entitlement to US support damages the US-Europe relationship and undermines Europe’s own security.

In the beginning of the twenty first century, Europe became much more self-sufficient. Several former communist states joined the European Union. The euro overtook the dollar.

As Schröder left office, he set up a pipeline deal with Russia. This deal came as Putin was starting to act undemocratic. Schröder successor, Angela Merkel, continued this deal, while Schröder received a lucrative job from the Russian company working on the pipeline.

In the beginning President Obama’s administration, Europe encountered tremendous economic problems in the after math of the financial crisis. Many European countries faced worse problems due to their own economic irresponsibility.

Europe eventually recovered, so when Trump took office, he started saying that if these European economies were so self-resilient, then they should pay more for NATO. Trump stressed that minimally European nations should pay the amount they pledged to pay to NATO.

Europe did not take kindly to this. Many European leaders openly tore apart Trump. There was a viral photo at the G7 of Merkel staring angrily at Trump sitting at a desk. European leaders kept citing the threat of Russia as the reason that NATO strength was so important.

Despite their “fear” of Russia, Germany and other European nations thought it would be a great time to double down on their reliance on Russia for energy by setting up a second pipeline with the nation. Germany and France made themselves further reliant on Russia by starting to shutdown nuclear plants in the name of “saving the environment”. Their environmental basis for shutting down nuclear plants came from pseudo-science. They also ignored actual environmental threats from the new Russia pipeline. 

Trump tried to stop Europe’s reliance on Russia by issuing sanctions against the new pipeline and warning the Europeans about the danger of receiving so much energy from Russia. But the European nations refused to enact their own sanctions and even laughed at Trump on international television.

When Trump left office, the approval of the US in Europe shot up. Many leaders announced how nice it was to have America taking a leadership role in the world. When Russia invaded Ukraine, the US contributed a lot of money and diplomatic capital to push back against Russia, doing much more than any European nation.

Yet now Europe is accusing the US of surrendering in Ukraine. One major German political advisor said the US’s absence was felt when the US did not send any major officials to some feel good conference on finding “solutions” for Russia. Meanwhile, Germany is selling a significant amount of its ports to China. All the while the US’s contribution to aid to Ukraine is larger than the EU’s combined aid.

Europe would like the US to take the economic hits that come with sanctions and providing significant aid, to protect Europe, while Europe reaps the economic benefit of not being responsible and gets to decry the US as an evil and imperialist. If those are Europe’s terms, when maybe America should not worry about gaining Europe’s “respect”.

Todd Carney is an international lawyer and a frequent writer on international issues. He earned his juris doctorate from Harvard Law School.