Wise words, from Michael Ignatieff , each of us in our own countries need to consider what the new strategy means. For the issues each country faces and for the issues as a global community we face and must address together and the new/renewed alliances we must forge and re-ignite to deal with them. Above all what we must resist is the forces and seeds of division that are being sown amongst us with malign intent.
Europe's "Civilizational Erasure": The US National Security Strategy and the End of the West
Author: Michael Ignatieff
Publication: Michael Ignatieff (Substack)
Date: December 7, 2025
Summary:
Michael Ignatieff analyzes the Trump administration's National Security Strategy released December 6, arguing it declares the end of "the West" and describes Europe as facing "civilizational erasure"—a phrase shocking in its contempt.
The document identifies four sources of Europe's erasure: (1) America declaring the West no longer exists, with only America as exceptional nation reclaiming destiny through fear rather than as "light to nations"; (2) European nation states surrendering sovereignty to the EU while America throws off international ties; (3) immigration creating majorities of "non-European" populations that will snap NATO's shared values; (4) liberal political correctness tyranny, with the strategy endorsing hard-right "patriotic parties" including Orban, Meloni, AFD, Nawrocki, Wilders, Bardella, Le Pen, and Farage as Europe's true defenders.
The document explicitly replaces common adherence to democracy with hard-right ideology as criteria for American friendship in Europe. It promises to lecture democracies on civil liberties while maintaining relations with Gulf States, China, and Russia—justified by hard power logic that democracies are weak while tyrannies are strong. The strategy confesses America cannot afford both massive welfare-regulatory state and massive military-diplomatic complex, revealing underlying weakness beneath desire to be feared.
Quotes:
"Europe faces 'civilizational erasure', first of all, because America has declared the 'West' no longer exists. There is only one world historical actor in this document. It is America, the 'exceptional' nation, reclaiming its destiny." — Michael Ignatieff
"We will oppose elite-driven, anti-democratic restrictions on core liberties in Europe, the Anglosphere, and the rest of the democratic world, especially among our allies." — US National Security Strategy
"To say that you want to be feared, while beating retreat, is not credible. Chinese reading the document will say, our time has come. Russians reading the document will say: we can still rebuild our old empire." — Michael Ignatieff
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