Rogue state meets dumb Europe: How the US and Europe are destroying their own power
By R Jagannathan
Barely one year after the return of Donald Trump to the White House, the United States of America increasingly appears to fit the definition of "Rogue State", and Europe is emerging as a "dumb orphan" unable to separate its own core interests from stupid political posturing.
Hegemons usually do not need to break the rules, for most rules would have been made by themselves in their interest. When they do break their own rules, they claim high principle as motivating their actions (eg, the US invasion of Iraq based on dubious intelligence, ostensibly to prevent Saddam Hussein from acquiring Weapons of Mass Destruction, or Nato's 78-day bombing of Yugoslavia without UN approval, ostensibly to prevent the Serbs from ethnically cleansing Kosovans, to name just two instances).
Usually, though, hegemons just promise something - promises they don't intend to keep - and then do what they anyway want to do at some later time, when it is more opportune. An example of the latter is Nato's promise to not expand "one inch further" if the Soviet Union under Mikhail Gorbachov agreed to let East Germany merge with the West in 1990-91. German unification expanded Nato indirectly, but we now know that this promise was n ot intended to be kept. It was repeatedly broken as Russia weakened further before the rise of Vladimir Putin in 1999. The underlying reason for the Ukraine war that began in 2022 is because there was talk of Ukraine joining Nato - something that crossed Putin's deep red lines on Russian security.
However, if these transgressions of global law and abandonment of solemn promises did not get Uncle Sam the label of "Rogue State", Trump has now managed to acquire it by his mindless actions. For the last several weeks, the US military has been bombing fishing vessels in the Caribbean claiming that they were ferrying drugs. Recently, it has also sought to blockade tankers bound for Venezuela. Earlier this week, Trump appointed an envoy to Greenland claiming that it is vital to US security. Greenland is loosely a part of Denmark, a key member-state of the European Union and Nato.
That both these moves - the boat strikes in the Carribbean and the Greenland gambit - are indicative of rogue action beyond the scope of international law becomes clear as the United Kingdom, one of Uncle Sam's closest allies, has stopped sharing intelligence about Caribbean drug trafficking. The UK obviously believes that its ally is breaching international law. Denmark, one of the founding members of Nato, has strongly protested the US decision to appiont an envoy to Greenland.
A "Rogue State" can be defined as one that not only has no respect for international law, but also does not care about who it is hurting, friend or foe. The US under Trump is clearly choosing to becoming one, drunk as it is on military and economic power.
But what is galling is the European inability to define its own interests. Till recently, as a junior ally of the US in Nato, it went along with all US demands, even if it went against its own interests. Germany, the defeated nation in the Second World War, was - willingly or unwillinglly becasme part of the repeated US deceptions after 1990. In an open letter to Chancellor Friedrich Merz on 17 December 2025, Jeffrey Sachs, Director of Columbia University's Centre for Sustainable Development, pointed out that security of Europe cannot be separated from the security needs of Russia, and that Germany was complicit in creating the conditions for the Ukraine war. Ukraine, which rejected compromise offers for peace soon after the war began in February 2022 (based on promises of European and American financial and miliatary support), is now on the verge of losing the war after sacrificing the lives of thousands of its citizens and courting the complete destruction of its cities and critical infrastructure.
Under US pressure, Germany and Europe had to deny themselves cheap Russian natural gas, effectively destroying the competitiveness of Europe's economic engine and seeing energy prices go through the roof for everybody.
Earlier in December, the European Union shot itself on the foot once more by deciding to freeze Euro 210 billion of Russian assets, most of its owned by the Central Bank of Russia. The latter then sued Euroclear, which holds these assets, for damages, in a Russian court. No prizes for guessing which way the verdict will go, though there can be questions about how any verdict will be enforced in courts outside Russia's jurisdiction. The EU effectively backed theft of sovereign assets, and destroyed trust in the global financial system, by freezing central bank assets, which sends a chilling message to all countries on how trustworthy these so-called "rules-based" western financial institutions are. Russia, Iran and Venezuela are already sanctioned. Who is to know which country will be next.
One wonders what Europe gains by attracting litigation in multiple courts, especially since the possibility that all courts in other jurisdictions will uphold its decision to freeze sovereign assets cannot be a 100 percent certainty.
What Europe has effectively done is ensure that no peace is possible, and it has done this by sending out a loud message to the world that western financial institutions cannot be trusted if you fall foul of their political intentions.
Europe is messing up its own options at a time when the US is no longer a trustworthy mentor and superboss.
The Rogue State's foolishness in undermining the global rules-based order is now matched by the stupidity of its own former vassal states in Europe.
Loved reading this article as it tells some relatively less known historical part and the implications of ongoing confilct. Language used could have been milder especially towards the latter part of the blog. Overall a worthwhile read.
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