Think about it. When it comes to sovereignty which countries are truly their own masters?
The US of course, Russia, China, Iran, India also Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Bolivia, North Korea. Notice all except for the US are considered and demonized as "enemies" of the US. Also notice no European country is listed as sovereign (my reasoning only) and for good reason. They're all part of the European Union EU-save for Switzerland and Great Britain which chose "Brexit" to sever ties with the bloc-and all including Britain are under the sway and diktat of the US on foreign policy.
Then there's NATO, the cold war relic that should have disbanded after the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. Let's remember NATO came into existence as a bloc in 1949 initiated primarily by the US as a military entity to counter the USSR from any encroachment into western Europe.
However instead of NATO going out of existence it has significantly expanded into countries many of which were members of the Soviet "Warsaw Pact" namely Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Poland, Czechoslovakia-now the Czech Republic and Slovakia-East Germany, Albania. NATO now includes some 30 countries including the former Soviet Baltic states of Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia.
Of course NATO expansion is in contravention of the verbal agreement by the Bush Sr. administration and Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev that NATO would not move "one inch" eastward if the two Germany's were allowed to re-unite. As we know that pledge was first broken by President Bill Clinton, then "Dubya" Bush and Barack Obama.
Now let's be clear. The EU and NATO though mostly European constructs are literally just pawns of the US in foreign affairs.
This was always the US intention. The US wanted no real European independence. Europe was to be subsumed into collective dependent entities of the US. No sovereign competitors with their own foreign policies just satellites under the US umbrella.
Sure there have been "cracks" in US hegemony over the Europeans. Brexit of course, France not engaged in the war in Iraq, Turkey purchasing the Russian made S-400 ABM system, the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline built under the Baltic Sea from Russia to Germany. Something the US continually threatened installing multiple sanctions against it throughout its construction until the Biden administration finally gave into the realization the pipeline was fait accompli and no use for the US continuing its sanctions routine.
Further "cracks" in NATO and the EU may be in the offing. France is having a presidential election next April with one candidate political commentator Eric Zemmour saying France should withdraw from the EU and NATO becoming a fully sovereign nation once again. It will be noteworthy if the French people buy into his appeal. Germany has a new Chancellor Olaf Scholz leading a coalition government. It's still too early to predict changes in German foreign policy. Germany under former Chancellor Angela Merkel always resisted US interference in Germany coordinating with Russia building the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline maintaining it was strictly a European venture.
Then there's Italy, Portugal, Austria, Greece, Hungary, Turkey, Romania, Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, Albania, Serbia all a part of NATO yet choosing to join China's BRI, Belt and Road Initiative something the US has condemned as China's way of gaining hegemony and economic dependence over them. This is certainly countries asserting their economic independence if not full sovereignty over their foreign affairs. Notably Germany and France have not joined the BRI though one or both may with new governments about to take the reins.
Are these not a "cracks" in US hegemony over its European vassals with them asserting their national self interests?
Then the US failure and botched withdrawal from Afghanistan how ineptly is was done. Many European allies part of the US coalition there were aghast openly questioning the Biden administrations decision making.
Currently there's US foot dragging on reinstating the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran which Trump reneged on in 2018. All the European signatories to the deal Britain, France and Germany along with China and Russia want it reaffirmed, Yet Biden can't seem to get it done. Something he promised during his campaign in 2020.
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