Why Europe Performs Unity Instead of Preparing for Danger

At Davos this week, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney delivered a warning Europe can no longer politely ignore. In a speech titled “The Power of the Powerless in a Multipolar World”—a deliberate echo of Václav Havel—Carney accused middle powers of “living within a lie,” sustaining a rulesbased order through rituals that no longer match reality. For NATO, the diagnosis is blunt: the alliance’s problem is not power, but performance.

Europe’s security crisis did not begin with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It began with a deeper cultural reflex—the belief that stability is the world’s default setting, and that institutions built in another era will continue to function without the political will or industrial muscle that once sustained them. For years, European leaders invoked “strategic autonomy” as if the phrase itself were a form of deterrence. Summits, communiqués, and declarations created the impression of motion even as the foundations of defense quietly eroded. Ritual replaced strategy.

On paper, NATO remains the most powerful military alliance in history. In practice, it has grown more comfortable performing unity than preparing for danger. Europe still burns through artillery shells........

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