European Council: Anticipating a new cold war

European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) research revealed that the vast majority of over 16,000 respondents who live in European Union (EU) member states believe that East-West relations are under serious strain.

The European Council on Foreign Relations, an international think tank based in Berlin, also sought answers to these questions.

Experts discovered the possibility that the idea of ​​a “new Cold War” would separate Europeans rather than unite them with Americans.

According to the latest ECFR report, most Europeans believe that a new cold war has begun between the United States, China, and Russia, but their countries are not part of it.

About 59 percent of respondents from 12 countries, including France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Austria, and Spain, said a new cold war broke out between the United States and Russia.

While in Poland and France, the majority of respondents felt that geopolitical discussions are actually affecting their countries, the rest said that it is the bigger players who are fighting.

At the same time, nearly two-thirds of survey respondents viewed the growing rivalry between the United States and China as the new geopolitical reality.

While only half of that number felt that the European Union was in the same position.

A view, vigorously defended by foreign policy analysts, is that the EU’s common foreign policy is weak.

This is due to the fact that EU member states have such different perceptions of threats.

The new ECFR research provides more detail about the motivations behind these perceptions.

When asked who has the most power in the world, most respondents did not focus on the larger countries.

This indicates that the peoples of Europe have fully internalized the idea that power is more diffuse.

While 13 percent of Europeans believe that the US government has the greatest influence on the conduct of business in the world, only 6 percent believe that the Chinese government has the greatest influence.

The general opinion is that non-state actors, corporations, and the wealthy make up the most powerful groups in today’s world.

According to the results of the research, it seems that the idea of ​​a new Cold War in the short term is bringing division rather than unity in the European Union.

So if policymakers want to build public support for a strong transatlantic alliance, they must present a different, less ideological framework.

Given the AUKUS crisis and the EU military’s discussion about cracks in the Western alliance.

It turns out that the policy objectives of the EU administration in Brussels and the member states are increasingly diverging.

Contacts between the European Union and Australia are continuing after Australia scrapped the billion-dollar submarine agreement with France and established a partnership called “AUKUS” with the United States and the United Kingdom.

Nikolai Patrushev, secretary of the Russian Security Council, told the newspaper Argomenti e Firkete.

The agreement between the three countries known as AUKUS will inevitably be another military bloc aimed at controlling and confronting the two most powerful non-Western powers.

Meanwhile, the growing competition between the United States and China in the region continues.

China described the decision of the United States of America and the United Kingdom to share submarine technology.

And nuclear-powered with Australia in the scope of cooperation with AUKUS as “great irresponsibility” by China.

And although the idea of ​​”strategic autonomy” for the European Union arouses great enthusiasm.

However, there are certain cracks in the idea of ​​an EU army, and in order for the idea of ​​a “European army” to become a reality, some problems must be overcome.

Such as joint strategy, legal and technical infrastructure, financing needs, defense expenditures, and differences in threat perceptions.