Appeasement was the name given to the policy in the 1930s of allowing Hitler to expand German territory unchecked. It was largely driven by Britain and is most associated with former British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain. He was desperate to avoid a war in Europe so agreed that Nazi Germany, under Adolf Hitler, could occupy the Sudetenland, the German-speaking part of Czechoslovakia.
This week, it seems as though newly elected US President Donald Trump will do to Ukraine, what Chamberlain did to Czechoslovakia. He will appease Putin at all costs to end the war in Ukraine and try and secure a hollow political victory at home.
Putin understands Donal Trump. Both are autocrats who only appreciate and respect power and strength.
Trump will likely do a deal with Putin, at the expense of Europe. He will likely leave the door open to Putin to regroup, replenish and resume his ambitious plans to expand Russia back into her old USSR borders.
The reasons that Trump will appease Putin, right now, are not clear but I have no doubt that history will not look kindly on Trump, a reality TV star and failed businessman whose real skills lie in understanding how to manipulate information.
And so, as Trump appeases Putin, a modern-day version of Adolf Hitler, the EU continues to appease Trump. Our leadership seems afraid of Donal Trump. We talk about buying more LNG gas and oil from him to bolster US growth. We talk about bowing to his daily whims on tariffs and trade. We talk about concessions to Trump rather than having the confidence to assert our dominance and authority in an ever-fractured global economy.
To take on Trump, we need to get our economic house in order. The EU has a population of over 440 million people, 100 million more than the US. We are the world’s largest trading bloc and the largest trader of manufactured goods and services across the globe. We are the top trading partner for 80 countries. By comparison, the US is the top trading partner for a little over 20 countries.
Yet, Mario Draghi’s report from the end of last year pointed to the fact that the US are richer, more innovative, more productive and have more of the world’s largest corporations than the EU.
In short, Europe has become lazy, unproductive, smothered in red tape and bureaucracy and we have months, not years, to untie the tape that is holding us back from becoming the world’s premier superpower.
America will become weaker and more isolated under Trump. Their economic and political weakness will be our opportunity.
Europe stands at a crossroads. It can no longer be business as usual. We must work quickly to unravel the bureaucracy of the past 20 years and allow innovation, growth and business to thrive. That requires difficult decisions. We must be united, as a bloc, focused on the real threats to European security coming from the East but also from the current threats posed by our so-called allies.
Europe cannot allow Donald Trump to empower and embolden Putin to march on Warsaw, Moldova and eventually into the heart of Europe. For those who appeased Putin in 2014 when he invaded Crimea, I ask, did you really think he would stop? Do you really think he will stop now?
The only negotiation that Putin understands is in defeat.
In the same way that Neville Chamberlain’s fear of Hitler walked us into World War 2, our weakness in the face of Putin’s aggression and our weakness in standing up to Trump, may lead us down the same path.
If we fail to learn the mistakes of the past, we are doomed to repeat them.
We must act now before it is too late.
