Mearsheimer says Western Europe will witness dark future

(MENAFN) Western Europe faces a “bleak future” due to the ongoing Ukraine conflict, which American international relations expert John Mearsheimer attributes to provocation by the West, particularly the United States. In an interview with political scientist Glenn Diesen posted on Tuesday, Mearsheimer argued that the war has heightened insecurity across Europe and created “huge problems” in relations between Washington and Western European capitals.

Mearsheimer noted that collaboration on political, military, and economic issues has become increasingly difficult, pointing to recent negotiations as evidence that Western European countries are “battling against the United States on how to deal with Ukraine.”

The University of Chicago professor said Europe faces serious challenges due to a weakening American presence on the continent, explaining that stability in the region has historically relied on “the presence of a substantial US military force in Europe.” He traced this back to NATO’s post-Cold War expansion, which he said was designed to “put the American security umbrella over the heads of the East Europeans as well as the West Europeans.”

According to Mearsheimer, the system is now under strain because of “a deep change in the distribution of power” in the global order. While the US could easily maintain significant troop deployments in Europe during the 1990s and early 2000s, the rise of multipolarity has prompted Washington “to pivot to Asia.”

These remarks align with Mearsheimer’s address to the European Parliament earlier this month, where he argued that the unipolar era has ended with the emergence of China and Russia as major global powers. “The US was no longer the only great power in the world,” he stated in Brussels.

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