Changes

*Fortress America is back.

*Fortress America is back.

The [[NATO proxy war in Ukraine]] had the perverse effect of increasing [[Europe]]'s, especially [[Germany]]'s, external dependencies for [[energy]]. By 2025 German chemical companies were building some of the world's largest processing plants in [[China]], using Russian gas that they could not obtain in Europe due to [[Russian sanctions]]. The Trump Administration found itself at odds with [[EU]] & [[UK]] leaders who held unrealistic expectations for the [[proxy war]] perched in unstable minority governments, many of which trample on basic principles of [[democracy]] to suppress opposition. A large European majority wanted [[peace]], yet that desire was not translated into [[policy]], in large measure because of those [[government]]s' [[subversion]] of democratic processes. This became [[strategic]]ally important to the [[United States]] precisely because European states cannot reform themselves if they are trapped in political crisis. One of the priorities laid out by the [[NSS25]] is "Ending the perception, and preventing the [[reality]], of [[NATO]] as a perpetually expanding alliance."

The [[NATO proxy war in Ukraine]] had the perverse effect of increasing [[Europe]]'s, especially [[Germany]]'s, external dependencies for [[energy]]. By 2025 German chemical companies were building some of the world's largest processing plants in [[China]], using Russian gas that they could not obtain in Europe due to [[Russian sanctions]]. The Trump Administration found itself at odds with [[EU]] & [[UK]] leaders who held unrealistic expectations for the [[proxy war]] perched in unstable minority governments, many of which trample on basic principles of [[democracy]] to suppress opposition. A large European majority of the [[population]] wanted [[peace]], yet that desire was not translated into [[policy]], in large measure because of those [[government]]s' [[subversion]] of democratic processes. This became [[strategic]]ally important to the [[United States]] precisely because European states cannot reform themselves if they are trapped in political crisis. One of the priorities laid out by the [[NSS25]] is "Ending the perception, and preventing the [[reality]], of [[NATO]] as a perpetually expanding alliance."

==See also==

==See also==