Commentary
BEIJING – As leaders gather once again at the Munich Security Conference, Europe finds itself confronting an uncomfortable truth: The greatest strategic risk it faces now comes from across the Atlantic.
For years, European policymakers have echoed Washington’s “de-risking” rhetoric, a term originally crafted to justify containing China’s development under the guise of economic caution.
Yet if Europe truly believes its own rhetoric on safeguarding sovereignty, recent shocks demand a more honest reading: De-risking must now mean de-Americanizing. This does not mean severing ties with the United States, but rather freeing itself from a structural dependence, given Washington’s unpredictability in its foreign policy.
The Munich Security Report 2026, tellingly titled Under Destruction, describes a world entering an era of “wrecking-ball politics.” At the center of this transformation stands Washington, which, the report notes, is actively dismantling core elements of the post-1945 international order. More than 80 years after its construction began, that order is now “under destruction.”
For Europe, the implications are profound. Washington’s approach to European security is increasingly described, even by the report itself, as volatile, oscillating “between reassurance, conditionality, and coercion.” It reflects transactional leverage.
A year ago in Munich, US Vice President JD Vance openly chastised European governments for what he called democratic “backsliding.” In front of the world, Europe was being publicly lectured by a superpower that no longer treats it as partner, but as a subordinate.
This shift did not happen overnight. For decades, Europe’s core strategic priorities have been dismissed by Washington when they clash with American interests. The U.S. bid for Greenland is a glaring example of Washington’s readiness to grab whatever Europe has for its own gain.
Regarding defense policy, Washington’s relentless pressure on European NATO members to meet a defense-spending target that rose from 2 to 5 percent has never been about strengthening Europe’s security but about forcing Europe to fund a U.S.-dominated military apparatus that serves America’s global hegemony.
NATO, once framed as a collective defense alliance, has been proven to be a tool for the United States to project power, with European nations pressured to deploy troops to conflicts that serve no European interest, while Washington siphons off billions in defense contracts for its own military-industrial complex.
Economic policy tells a similar story. The United States has repeatedly imposed unilateral tariffs on European goods, from steel and aluminum to wine and cheese, tearing apart WTO rules and inflicting billions in losses on European businesses, all to protect its own industries.
For decades, Washington also weaponized its global financial dominance to impose extraterritorial sanctions on European companies that dared to do business with US adversaries. The Inflation Reduction Act, hailed by US politicians as a domestic policy win, was in essence a blatant act of economic warfare against Europe.
Many in Europe have started to wake up to the illusion of transatlantic unity. Washington has proven time and again that it will prioritize its own hegemonic interests over Europe’s survival, whether through economic plunder, military coercion or ideological bullying.
If Europe seeks to de-risk in a world of wrecking-ball politics, it must begin by terminating its addiction to U.S. “protection.” That is the price of true strategic autonomy.
– Xinhua
