Boris Pistorius, Germany’s defense minister, saying that Europe must behave “confidently” toward the United States, reveals less about strength than it does about structural weakness. Comparing Europe to “a rabbit before a snake” is an open acknowledgment of the EU’s subordinate position in transatlantic relations. In effect, these remarks concede that after decades of security dependence on the United States, Europe lacks both the will and the tools for strategic independence. What Pistorius describes as a necessary focus on independence is, in reality, more an effort to compensate for accumulated humiliations than a genuine plan to step out from Washington’s shadow.

Europe and the erosion of its global standing

These positions echo other admissions by European officials. In the view of NATO’s secretary-general, European military independence is an “illusion,” and a former EU foreign policy chief has described the bloc as merely a “statement-issuing machine.” Eighty years of security dependence on the United States has eroded not only Europe’s military autonomy but also its political and economic independence. The result is a union now exposed to public humiliations — from Trump’s demand for Greenland to U.S. strategic documents portraying Europe as a failed actor. In this context, the Germans’ remarks inadvertently validate the arguments of countries that regard the United States as a global threat and stress the need for collective action to contain it.

Germany and the return of a Nazi-era temptation

Berlin’s conduct suggests that talk of European self-confidence serves as a cover for reviving German militarism. The focus on prolonging the war in Ukraine and the discussion of ideas such as “the strategic mistake of abandoning nuclear energy,” “Germany’s or Europe’s need for an atomic bomb,” and military strengthening against Russia and China, evoke lines of thinking that once dragged the world into two devastating wars. The allocation of hundreds of billions of euros to the military, the purchase of loitering munitions, heavy Chinook helicopters, and the broad integration of artificial intelligence into military structures all indicate that Germany is moving beyond the post-World War II constraints put in place to prevent a repetition of historical catastrophe.

A stark contradiction between rhetoric and practice

While German officials speak of independence and self-confidence, their practical behavior reflects complete alignment with the United States. Berlin has sacrificed its own strategic interests — including energy security — in the Ukraine war to meet Washington’s demands. Its alignment with U.S. anti-Iran positions, full support for the Israeli regime, insistence on the snapback mechanism, and even the suppression of pro-Palestinian supporters all point to this contradiction. As a result, Germany has become a threat to international security not only because of its military ambitions but also because of its full alignment with the United States — a threat whose containment, the argument goes, requires a global consensus.