The challenge is plain: Trump is not just the first U.S. president who doesn’t actively support the EU; he has also made clear that its disintegration would advance U.S. interests. His stance on global trade, the Paris climate deal and the Iran nuclear deal threaten to unpick key elements of global governance. His back-and-forth on NATO and his coziness with Russian President Vladimir Putin are deeply worrying for the future of European security. And his temporary travel ban on visitors from seven majority-Muslim countries has sown chaos, undermining the international management of the refugee crisis and fanning the flames of Islamic extremism. [...]
There are encouraging signs that the political momentum is shifting in this direction. In Austria, for example, the far-right Freedom Party was defeated in presidential elections. And in France, centrist candidate Emmanuel Macron is leading the polls ahead of elections in Spring. Europe must encourage these trends. [...]
The biggest challenge will be to revolutionize European security cooperation, as a new wave of terror attacks would push voters to nationalist and populist parties. European law enforcement and intelligence agencies have, until now, relied heavily on a successful cooperation with their U.S. counterparts. But intelligence sharing between European countries has lagged, and so an ambitious plan for better European intelligence cooperation must become a top priority.
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