In effect, we should revisit Charles de Gaulle’s bid to maintain more French independence within the Western alliance, which made him a thorn in the American side during the Cold War, and recognize that he was right. It was not actually in America’s long-term interests to make Europe our full dependent, because vassaldom encourages weakness, and weakness reduces the value of the alliance in a world that America can no longer simply bestride alone.

Of course it may be too late for a European escape from decadence: The goal of transitioning from a “welfare state” to a “warfare state,” as the Financial Times columnist Janan Ganesh put it, may be doomed by the expectations of an aging electorate.

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