It is more of a coalition of war than a coalition of the willing

While Europe plays the role of extra in the Atlanticist theater, Putin composes the score of a new world, acclaimed by the East and the global South.

Mohamed Lamine KABA

European leaders in crumpled suits mill around Zelensky, reciting in chorus the mantras of a solidarity they no longer understand, while Vladimir Putin brilliantly orchestrates the awakening of the multipolar world. Stunned and mired in its moral posturing and ineffective sanctions, the collective West watches the East and the Global South forge real, strategic, and lasting alliances. In Moscow, they’re not begging for Washington’s attention – they’re redefining it. While Brussels ridicules itself as a wartime proxy, the Kremlin welcomes the global majority, demonstrating that Russia’s isolation is an illusion maintained by illusionists.

The so-called “coalition of the willing” is merely the architecture of a proxy war under Atlantic supervision.

The term “coalition of the willing”, which has since replaced the rhetoric of Russia’s strategic defeat, evokes an alliance that claims to be free and united. However, an analysis of diplomatic and military mechanisms reveals a much more constrained structure, driven by Washington’s strategic interests. The summit of August 18, 2025, in Washington, where Volodymyr Zelensky was surrounded by European leaders such as Emmanuel Macron, Friedrich Merz, Alexander Stubb, Giorgia Meloni, Mark Rutte and Ursula von der Leyen, highlighted a dynamic of subjection, vassalage and servility. The Europeans were not invited to the bilateral summit of August 15 between Trump and Putin in Alaska, much less to the meeting of August 18 between Trump and Zelensky, in which they intruded and were called upon to validate the terms of a process already initiated.

Not only is Europe excluded from the decisive negotiations, but it is also being asked to finance and prolong a conflict whose objectives and outcomes it has no control over

This coalition, far from being a space for co-decision, functions as a recording chamber for American orientations, which are tailored to the “Truman Doctrine” on the one hand, and on the other, guided by Brzeziński’s theory. That is to say, to contain the Eastern powers and control Eurasia. This explains the permanence of the trade war between Washington and Beijing, and the historical continuity of the logic of escalation and the mutual perception of threat between the United States and Russia. The security guarantees mentioned by Trump, close to Article 5 of NATO, are not the result of multilateral consultation, but of unilateral imposition. Europe, in search of geopolitical stature and torn between surprise and astonishment, finds itself relegated to the rank of military executor, mobilizing its arsenals (5% of GDP allocated to defense) without having its own strategic vision. Far from a coalition of peace, it is a coalition of war, where Ukraine becomes the scene of an indirect confrontation between powers, and where Europe plays the role of a proxy.

Russia as a pivotal power in a diplomatic game where Europe humiliates itself through excessive compliance

Without any ambiguity, the Alaska summit choked the thunderous laughter of European leaders in their throats: Vladimir Putin was able to impose his conditions within a bilateral framework, relegating the Europeans to a peripheral position. This marginalization is all the more striking given that the European leaders, gathered around Zelensky in Washington, expressed their ignorance of the exact terms of the exchange between the two presidents. Emmanuel Macron himself acknowledged that “we cannot discuss under bombs”, while calling for “increasing sanctions” against Moscow – a paradoxical stance that illustrates Europe’s strategic impasse.

While Europe is mired in punitive rhetoric, Russia is methodically advancing its pawns. Putin is proposing a direct meeting with Zelensky, followed by a trilateral summit with Trump. This initiative, far from being improvised, reveals Moscow’s ability to structure diplomatic dialogue around its interests, while bypassing European institutions. The humiliation is twofold: not only is Europe excluded from the decisive negotiations, but it is also being asked to finance and prolong a conflict whose objectives and outcomes it has no control over.

It can be said that Europe is getting bogged down in its moral incantations and its ineffective sanctions while Putin, hailed by the East and the global South, is tracing the contours of a world order in which the West is nothing more than a disoriented spectator.

Mohamed Lamine KABA, Expert in geopolitics of governance and regional integration, Institute of Governance, Humanities and Social Sciences, Pan-African University