Morteza Makki, a European affairs expert, stated in an interview with the website of the Strategic Council on Foreign Relations: “The history of transformation in America’s political, economic, and security relations with Europe goes back to the period after World War II. Washington, through the Marshall Plan and aid to European countries, including Eastern European countries, sought to limit the Soviet Union’s sphere of influence and domination in Europe.”
He added, “America tried through treaties such as the NATO security pact to create a kind of unprecedented and very close cohesion and solidarity with Western European countries. Although over the roughly eight decades since World War II, these relations have had their ups and downs, no event has been able to make Europe and America’s political and security relations this fragile to the extent that the Ukraine war has.”
Makki believes that the promotion of Donald Trump’s “America First” slogan effectively brought about significant changes in relations between Brussels and Washington.
He said: “This slogan emphasizes that European countries must provide for their own security costs, such that each of them must allocate 5% of their Gross National Product to defense budgets. This situation has placed European governments under significant pressure.”
This European affairs expert continued that none of these pressures has affected the foundations of US-Europe relations to the extent that America’s policy towards the Ukraine war has. America’s unilateral approaches and its 28-article peace plan for the Ukraine war, based on ‘peace in exchange for land,’ have effectively caused the foundations of US-Europe political and security relations to become unstable.
According to Makki, the United States has not even been willing to provide lasting security guarantees to Ukraine in its proposed plan. Washington has committed European countries that, in exchange for Ukraine’s acceptance of Trump’s peace plan, the country could benefit from the advantages of European Union membership and bilateral security treaties between Europe and America. Security treaties that are said to be similar to NATO’s Article 5 in the area of collective defense.
He continued: “However, these guarantees do not seem to be of a kind that would seriously commit Europe to Ukraine’s security, as each of these countries is concerned about tension in relations with Russia and seeks to regulate relations with this country in a manner that, like in the past, does not lead to distrust and tension on Russia’s borders with Europe.”
Makki added: “Effectively, the logic and method that Trump has adopted to advance America’s goals in the world have destabilized the foundations of international law after World War II, and America’s approach to the Israeli regime’s military aggressions in Gaza, the 12-day war against Iran, and the Ukraine issue have all been outside the post-World War II legal rules.”
He added: “Certainly, this type of behavior by the American president legitimizes Russia’s action in attacking Ukraine and could even pave the way for a new crisis in Taiwan.”
This European affairs expert, noting that America has been one of the founders of the legal rules and the current structure of the international order since World War II, continued: “Today, America is effectively fueling disorder in the world, and these actions and Trump’s behavior, with the ‘America First’ slogan while claiming to defend the existing order, are contradictory, and the American president’s policies have effectively led to the fragility of the existing order’s structure.”
According to Makki, this type of behavior by Trump will undoubtedly have serious political, security, and economic consequences in the coming years.
He added: “America’s attack on Venezuela and the kidnapping of its president, and the claims Trump makes regarding the annexation of Greenland to American soil, all indicate that the continuation and implementation of America’s policies within this framework could lead to disorder and chain-reaction crises in other crisis centers of the world.”
In response to the question of what foreign relations strategy can guarantee the most benefits for Iran in this tense atmosphere, Makki, stating that the current situation holds both opportunity and risk, said: “Iran can view these pressures as an opportunity for itself and, by expanding its relations with Russia, China, and other friendly countries, both challenge the sanction policies of Europe and America and expand its own political and security relations.”
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