{"id":293921,"date":"2026-02-16T10:38:18","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T10:38:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/293921\/"},"modified":"2026-02-16T10:38:18","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T10:38:18","slug":"embrace-an-ally-submit-to-a-bully-or-go-it-alone-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/293921\/","title":{"rendered":"embrace an ally, submit to a bully or go it alone? \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Few attending this year\u2019s Munich Security Conference<\/a> will have known the history of two parallel streets near their venue, snaking through the Bavarian<\/a> capital\u2019s old town.<\/p>\n

In the Hitler era, anyone heading down the Residenzstrasse were obliged to give the Nazi salute as they passed the Feldherrnhalle, then a well-guarded memorial to fascist \u201cmartyrs\u201d killed in the failed putsch of 1923.<\/p>\n

Those who resented this forced show of ideological submission ducked instead down the back of the Feldherrnhalle and continued along the parallel Theatinerstrasse.<\/p>\n

For anyone who knows this history, on top of Munich\u2019s reputation since 1938 as the capital of Hitler appeasement, the parallels to this year\u2019s Munich Security Conference were uncomfortably prescient. <\/p>\n

Which path should Europe take now? Continue down the current path of co-operation and compromise, based on lessons learned the hard way in the second World War<\/a>, or follow the Donald Trump<\/a> path to prioritise the national interest in politics, economics, migration and climate policy.<\/p>\n

Rubio\u2019s speech<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s chief diplomat Marco Rubio<\/a> made a play for the latter, in a speech that mixed sentiment and sneers.<\/p>\n

The United States<\/a> was a \u201cchild of Europe\u201d but its rules-based order was a \u201cdelusion\u201d while the \u201cdogmatic idea of free and unfettered trade\u201d had, in the Trump world view, expedited the West\u2019s decline, deindustrialisation, supply-chain dependencies and a \u201cmalaise of hopelessness and complacency\u201d.<\/p>\n

His conciliatory message: \u201cWe made these mistakes together and now, together, we owe it to our people to face those facts and move forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Marco Rubio says US destiny \u2018intertwined\u2019 with Europe, but with caveatsOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cWe in America have no interest in being polite and orderly caretakers of the West\u2019s managed decline,\u201d he said. \u201cWe do not seek to separate but to revitalise an old friendship and renew the greatest civilisation in human history.\u201d<\/p>\n

European leaders in the hall listened carefully and applauded politely at the end. Later, some expressed relief that Rubio had spared the transatlantic relationship a Valentine\u2019s Day massacre<\/a>. But others noted that the Trump administration\u2019s interest in a \u201cstrong Europe\u201d rests on a Trumpian definition of strength.<\/p>\n

Kallas and Lagarde<\/p>\n

It fell to political Europe\u2019s leading ladies to offer the most polite but firm pushback. Some could not resist a snarky response to the contested claim, repeated by Rubio, that Europe\u2019s liberal laws and migration policies have put the Continent on a slippery slope to \u201ccivilisational erasure\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cContrary to what some say,\u201d said Kaja Kallas, the European Union\u2019s<\/a> foreign policy chief, \u201cwoke decadent Europe is not facing civilisational erasure.\u201d <\/p>\n

European Central Bank president Christine Lagarde<\/a> was in fiery form when she said renewed European investment in defence, as well as migration policy corrections, were the correct response to \u201cthe kick in the butt that we all received as a result of president Trump\u2019s change of attitude towards Europe\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"EuropeanEuropean Central Bank president Christine Lagarde. Photograph: Thomas Kienzle\/AFP via Getty Images <\/p>\n

But she said US officials would do well to read the founding fathers of the European integration project, Jean Monnet and Robert Schuman.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey all say the same thing,\u201d she said. \u201cEurope is stronger, and gets better together, in times of crisis\u201d.<\/p>\n

Ireland\u2019s delegation <\/p>\n

Minister for Foreign Affairs Helen McEntee<\/a>, leading the Irish delegation, saw some signs of hope in how, rather than denigrate the United Nations<\/a> like other Trump officials, Rubio said a reformed UN \u201cstill has tremendous potential to be a tool for good in the world\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe UN has served us extremely well,\u201d said McEntee, \u201cbut we all agree that there is change and reform needed to reform it from within to reflect the world we live in now.\u201d<\/p>\n

A delegation of vocal and visible Democrats<\/a> in Munich took issue with the world according to Donald Trump, in particular Rubio\u2019s implication that the White House holds a monopoly on the national interest.<\/p>\n

Gavin Newsom<\/p>\n

\u201cTrump is an invasive species who has taken over the Republican Party … our republic is being destroyed in real time,\u201d said Gavin Newsom<\/a>, Democratic governor of California. In his second appearance on Sunday, echoing the diagnosis of Christine Lagarde, he noted how \u201ctoday Europe feels more united than in a long time\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"CaliforniaCalifornia governor Gavin Newsom. Photograph: Alexandra Beier\/AFP via Getty Images The German perspective<\/p>\n

The Lagarde-Kallas interventions on Sunday book-ended a united EU response that began with the opening address of German chancellor Friedrich Merz<\/a> on Friday afternoon.<\/p>\n

\u201cHegemonic fantasies? No,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re building our strength, our sovereignty and our capacity for mutual solidarity in Europe \u2013 and we do it with principled realism.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0A small German state\u2019s quiet revolt against Microsoft \u2013 and what it means for EuropeOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Embracing principled realism meant acknowledging, Merz noted, that the postwar international order based on rights and rules \u201cno longer exists\u201d. That was in part because of Russia\u2019s war of aggression against Ukraine and, in part, due to a new and muscular struggle between \u201cgreat powers\u201d.<\/p>\n

On Saturday, German officials were frank in their reviews of the Rubio address as a zero-sum game to authoritarian disaster. One summarised its Trumpian logic using the ironic German expression: \u201cIf everyone thinks of themselves, then everyone is thought of.\u201d<\/p>\n

Greenland as sideshow<\/p>\n

Amid European debate over the world\u2019s direction of travel, US Republican delegates offered a sideshow by fighting in public over Greenland<\/a>, part of the kingdom of Denmark, which Trump has vowed to annex \u2013 by force if necessary.<\/p>\n

A month on from those threats, South Carolina Republican Lindsey Graham insisted in Munich that Greenland \u201cis behind us\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWho gives a shit who owns Greenland?\u201d he asked. \u201cI don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fellow Republican senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina, also in Munich, hit back: \u201cThe 55,000 indigenous people of Greenland give a shit about who owns Greenland. And at the end of the day, we need to show them respect.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a sign of continual Republican divisions over Trump\u2019s Arctic gambit, still the subject of discreet talks in Washington with Denmark and Greenland, Tillis added: \u201cOur nation was founded on rejecting bullies.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was a timely remark as Marco Rubio departed for pro-Russian EU member states Slovakia and Hungary, where the main election rival to Viktor Orban accused the Hungarian prime minister of bullying him with a threatened sex tape.<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s demand<\/p>\n

Demanding an intervention from the White House on Saturday were 250,000 exiled Iranians<\/a> who came from all over Europe to demand an end to the Islamic regime in Tehran.<\/p>\n

They braved wind and rain, waved green-white-red flags with lion and sun emblems of the Pahlavi dynasty and chanted \u201cChange! Change! Change!\u201d and \u201cJavid shah\u201d (long live the shah).<\/p>\n

Exiled crown prince Reza Pahlavi said the continuing survival of the Iranian government \u2013 even after last month\u2019s civilian massacre \u2013 sent \u201ca clear signal to every bully: kill enough people and you stay in power\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"RezaReza Pahlavi and his wife Yasmine during a rally in Munich to denounce the Iranian government’s crackdown on recent protests. Photograph: Fariha Farooqui\/EPA <\/p>\n

\u201cTo president Trump … the Iranian people heard you say \u2018help is on the way\u2019, and they have faith in you. Help them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The China choice<\/p>\n

Amid Europe\u2019s ongoing standoff with the US, Rubio was followed by China\u2019s<\/a> foreign minister and Politburo member Wang Yi.<\/p>\n

He framed \u201cgrowing turbulence\u201d as a sign that \u201chumanity has come to a new crossroads\u201d where certain unnamed bully countries \u201cseek to magnify differences and disagreements\u201d and \u201crevive a Cold War mentality\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"ChineseChinese foreign minister Wang Yi shakes hands with German chancellor Friedrich Merz. Photograph: Michael Bihlmayer\/Pool\/Getty Images <\/p>\n

\u201cBut we live in a multipolar world, and need to practise true multilateralism,\u201d he said, suggesting Europe should \u201cmake the right choices in the face of challenges.\u201d<\/p>\n

Translation: choose China as Europe\u2019s best partner for the future.<\/p>\n

It was a firm, if low-key response to Rubio\u2019s more robust claim that failing to follow US reassertion of western cultural and economic supremacy would leave Europe \u201cvulnerable to extortion from other powers\u201d.<\/p>\n

On Sunday afternoon, departing European delegates walked down Munich streets paved with old historical choices and mulled the best path ahead. An ally\u2019s embrace, submission to a bully, or go it alone? But which path is which?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Few attending this year\u2019s Munich Security Conference will have known the history of two parallel streets near their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":293922,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1657,11156,54,1685,4420,170,5330,42,87,11741,43,149195,40,38,41,39,1032,208],"class_list":["post-293921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-china","tag-christine-lagarde","tag-donald-trump","tag-european-union","tag-friedrich-merz","tag-germany","tag-greenland","tag-headlines","tag-iran","tag-marco-rubio","tag-news","tag-second-world-war","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-united-states","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293921","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=293921"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293921\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/293922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=293921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=293921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=293921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}