ABSTRACT
Russia and China threaten Europe. Both countries try to exploit internal tensions in Europe to further their cause and weaken Europe’s ability to mount a unified answer. The Russian war against Ukraine was met with European and US sanctions. Yet this has not prevented the signing of a lucrative gas export deal with Germany, a deal which will have a detrimental impact on regional stability. Close links between Russia and European nationalist and anti-EU parties might impair EU’s continued assistance of the countries on the Union’s eastern border. China is primarily a threat to European industrial prowess and economic competitiveness. Take-overs of European enterprises, industrial espionage, and targeted investments in poorer EU countries have given China a troubling foothold inside the European Union. Although the problems posed by China are broadly similar in Europe and the US, no efforts have been made to agree on a common response. The Trump administration’s coupling of trans-Atlantic trade with security has so far made this impossible.
