Opinion | Europe must make the US feel the cost of coercion
Instead of outsourcing its defence capacity to Washington and limiting economic ties with Beijing, the EU should focus on building leverage
Europe’s survival as an independent political power depends on its readiness to impose costs on the United States while reopening a sustained channel with China.
The Arthashastra counsels that the enemy of one’s enemy is one’s friend. Europe has ignored this principle, absorbing repeated American bullying while refusing to leverage relations with China as a counterweight.
After limited military exercises by several European Nato members, Trump threatened a 10 per cent tariff that would increase to 25 per cent unless an agreement was reached. These were elements of a coercive bargaining strategy aimed at extracting concessions.
The central failure lies less with Washington than with European leaders who respond to pressure with appeasement. The US applies coercion because it expects tolerance of systematic exploitation. EU leverage has been abandoned across trade, technology, energy, politics and diplomacy. This is not a dispute over abstract values but a refusal to use influence.