The rupture occurred on February 14, during the Munich Security Conference: US President Donald Trump, through his vice president, JD Vance, announced the end of the West and the Atlantic alliance as geopolitical players. In the process, he also declared an all-out war on culture and values. Europe became the enemy, and Russian President Vladimir Putin's Russia became the ally. This shift in alliances opened new perspectives for all actors on the international stage.
Trump, who is pushing for a trade war and shows little concern for the worsening climate crisis, and his policies are exacerbating contemporary issues. Despite being prepared through a detailed program (Project 2025) and supported by powerful economic forces, his second presidency is nevertheless marked by erratic decisions, fueling financial instability. After an initial stock market euphoria, uncertainty is already slowing down American investment and consumption and could lead to a recession.
Rather than lamenting these turbulences, we must seize this opportunity to lay the foundations of a new multilateralism, temporarily without the United States, that respects Europe's values on the global challenges of the coming decades: climate change, new digital technologies, immigration, inequality and the rise of far-right populism.
Against transactional mercantilism
The new multilateralism will need narrative foundations. In opposition to the nihilism of the law of the strongest, it is essential to reaffirm humanist progressivism and international law. Against transactional mercantilism, we must demonstrate the need for global and coordinated economic policies to address the challenges of the environmental transition and its impacts on the poorest countries and populations.
We must therefore invoke the spirit of economists John Maynard Keynes and Joseph Schumpeter, as the transition to a decarbonized economy will require public investments to stimulate the private sector, public scientific research for innovation and compensatory social policies to strengthen social consensus.
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