Donald Trump made a trip to the Middle East and it was clear he is re-organizing the world. He strengthened U.S. relations with Saudi Arabia and made commercial agreements with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
Agreements with Saudi Arabia involved large arms purchases and financial commitments by the U.S. and Saudi Arabia and large commitments to development of AI research and development in both countries. Trump gave a speech that emphatically made the point that U.S. policy is focused on establishing and maintaining peace. if possible. Another clear point from this trip is that Trump will emphasize new technology development with effective partners. It was also clear Europe is on the sidelines.
Europe put itself on the sidelines when it established the European Union nearly 30 years ago, but has not quite grasped that fact, yet. Two articles in last week’s Wall Street Journal explained the problem.
The first, by Walter Russell Mead titled Why Democracy is in Retreat (WSJ, 20 May 2025) outlined how left-wing political parties advocate democracy but do not abide by it. A basic requirement of democracy is that the portion of the population that did not vote for the winner of an election accept their loss and work peacefully with the winner. As Mead discusses, that is no longer a feature of Western democracies. The losing parties, increasingly left (viciously and, sometimes, violently), oppose the winning party and strongly undermine the winners.
Thus, democracy erodes to authoritarianism – on one side or the other.
Attempts to maintain a centrist path are not successful, either. Consider the poor German voter. After several years of an ineffective and misguided so-called center-left government, Germany held new elections. German sentiment swung strongly to the right. A so-called center-right won the most votes with a further right party, the AfD, coming in second. Instead of forming a government with the AfD, however, the centrist-right teamed up with the centrist-left party, which had just been voted out. So, the German voter got no meaningful change. This plethora of political parties hinders change and undermines progress. Madison identified such a variety of political participants as Factions and cited them as a reason the Founders did not form the U.S. Government as a democracy.
It has been 80 years since the end of World War II, after which the U.S. foisted democracies as a desirable form of government on the nations of Europe. Democracies are unstable and, thus, do not last very long, however. Today, those democracies are reaching the end of their shelf life. One of the mysteries of American foreign policy is that it imposed a flawed system of government on other countries, which it does not use itself.
Discussions of the difficulties of democracies in the modern world implicitly consider only two forms of government: democracy and authoritarian-totalitarian. Seldom, if ever, mentioned is another form of elective government: a Republic. Conceived by Greeks, implemented by Rome, developed by Venice, and chosen by the Founders as the form of government for the United States, a Republic renders a more stable government than democracies. The American Pledge of Allegiance to the flag includes the phrase “and to the Republic for which it stands.” Nevertheless, the U.S. has busybodied itself around the world for the last 75 years or so trying to impose democracy on the rest of the world and wondering why it does not turn out very well. Despite all the evidence, it is almost impossible to change the beliefs of democracy advocates, however, as Socrates found out 2,500 years ago and Mead described last week. Europe would be far better off if it traded in the EU for a confederation of republics.
The second pertinent WSJ article was a front-page article entitled The Tech Industry is Huge – and Europe’s Share of It is Very Small (WSJ, 21 May 2025). This article describes the various ways the EU suppresses innovation and entrepreneurism. As the U.S. and China race forward with technological development and innovation, the EU is not even in the race. The EU and the UK together hold only two percent of AI patents. Nearly 40 years ago, Timothy Berners-Lee, working at CERN in Geneva, invented the World Wide Web. Not much has been heard of a tech development in Europe or CERN for thirty years. The Journal article points out how European tech scientists and engineers migrate to the U.S. to follow their ambitions and apply their abilities.
Europe complains and various commentators deplore U.S. abandonment of and antagonism toward Europe. They do not reflect the U.S. attitude toward Europe, however. Europe took itself out of the game. It is no longer the same society that built the Concorde, developed high-speed rail, or built the original accelerator at CERN, and it shows no inclination to change.
The U.S. seeks new partners who want to build a new future and embrace new ideas. It is finding those partners in unexpected places. The U.S. chose the Middle East as a technical partner. It’s an area with little past accomplishment in technology – but, it has a desire to create a new Middle East for the future. It also has the investment capability to act on that desire.
Trump should be making other foreign trips to cement relations soon. Southeast Asia should be next and then Latin America. With such trips and the preparatory contacts and discussions, a new world organization will develop.