Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, Western foreign policy has been based on two mistaken assumptions.
The first was that we could get the Chinese and Russian regimes to accept and embrace the liberal international order through the creation of interdependence via trade, dissemination of technical know-how and membership of international institutions.
The second assumption – mainly practiced by the U.S. but certainly not without support in Europe – was to make the world safe for democracy through military intervention and nation building. These liberal adventures abroad have cost enormous amounts and caused human tragedy.
This is why we need something that could be described as “Principled Realism”, a conservative pursuit of realism with a moral compass based on our Judeo-Christian values.
The illusion that China would be committed to free markets, tolerance, and self-determination is long gone.
On the long term, the West cannot rely or closely cooperate with countries that seek to undermine our interests and democratic institutions. If the West is to win a new Cold War-esque direct challenge from Red China, we will need to re-examine and strengthen all aspects of transatlantic cooperation as well as our cooperation with like-minded partners around the world.
The EU, NATO, U.S., U.K. and other important democracies should form – for lack of a better word – a Western Alliance. Such an alliance must base its policies on Principled Realism and reverse the policy of integration and mutual dependence with our competitors and potential enemies.
Finally, just as NATO is a defensive alliance essentially with the purpose of preventing an attack from Russia, we need a ‘trade NATO’ as a defensive alliance of democratic states willing to defend member states from hostile Chinese trade sanctions.
We need to build defence, energy and trade alliances, given how on our own, we are not able to manage in the competition with Russian and Chinese imperialism. In other matters, we must once again trust the nation state and the Westphalian sovereign order.
https://www.brusselsreport.eu/2022/0...ato-for-trade/