Europe was anxious after World War I. To fortify their defenses against Germany, the French built the Maginot Line—a vast system of fortifications, obstacles, and weapon installations along France’s borders with Germany—in the 1930s. In 1940, Germany circumvented the Maginot Line by invading through Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg to the north, ultimately defeating France within six weeks.

The French elite’s almost mystical belief in the invulnerability of the Maginot Line was one of the reasons for the country’s strange defeat in 1940, argued the historian William L. Shirer in his acclaimed book, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. “The French placed all their faith in the line of fortification that, in the end, became more of a psychological crutch than a strategic asset,” he wrote.

Today, we are witnessing the unraveling of the post–Cold War European order and the real risk of a rupture in the transatlantic alliance as a result of President Donald Trump’s attacks on Europe and his determination to buy or annex Greenland. This state of affairs compels one to ask whether future historians will argue that European confidence in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was Europe’s Maginot Line of the mind—a psychological crutch that created a false sense of security and prevented Europe from preparing to meet its existential challenges.

Could it be that Europe’s current sense of vulnerability is above all a failure of the European imagination? Most European policymakers agree in private that Americans can no longer be trusted to defend their allies. Yet publicly they insist that NATO remains vital for the defense of Europe. European publics are less diplomatic. A recent study conducted by the European Council on Foreign Relations reveals that only 16% of Europeans view the United States as an ally. Perhaps, more striking, a fifth of the respondents described it as an adversary or a rival.

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In the aftermath of the Cold War, NATO was Europe’s last religion. It was more than simply a defense alliance; it was the Holy Spirit that ruled the world at the end of history. Europeans were mesmerized by American military power, and they found little reason to doubt Washington’s commitment to the security of the Old Continent. The existence of NATO made it possible for the majority of Europeans to fantasize that a major war in Europe was unthinkable in the 21st century. European fealty to NATO prevented them from recognizing that in the post-Cold War environment, particularly in Eastern Europe, demilitarizing Europe rather than building its defense capabilities had become the alliance’s central task.

Contrary........

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