If I can just put in my two cents, I think Europe is going Trumpian, albeit unwillingly.

These days President Joe Biden is busy trying his very best to impress the world that America is back with Europe. I doubt that he believes what he says. I also doubt that Europe believes what he says.

I have no doubt, though, ex-President Donald Trump still has a grip on Europe despite losing America in his re-election bid.

Don’t get me wrong. I am not saying that Europe is taking orders from Trump. Most Europeans hate his guts. And why shouldn’t they? Trump was the first US president, in the post-Soviet era, who told Europe point-blank this naked truth: Defend your nice backyard against Russia at your own expense. Pay up or shut up. 

Meanwhile, Russia may have a world-class military force, but Moscow simply can’t support it much longer with a developing-world economy. The size of Russia’s economy is about that of Texas'. You figure out the rest. As a matter of fact, Putin can’t even threaten to cut off Russia's oil and gas supplies to Europe, knowing that oil and gas-rich America will be quite ready to kick him to the curb at less than a moment’s notice. Under the circumstances, Putin would think twice before risking more economic sanctions on top of those he paid for his 2014 Crimea invasion. But what if we underestimate Moscow's desperation? We know this much is true: Desperate times call for desperate measures. Desperate measures? In Moscow's terms, desperate measures mean every measure to enlarge "Russia's European Buffer Zone" (see the map below). When this happens---if this happens---it won't be a pretty sight.

To paraphrase Karl Marx, Russia's specter is haunting Europe. Already given a Trumpian wake-up call, Europe should no longer pretend that its security is America's problem. Perceptive Europeans may well know that Biden is a high-sounding weasel. On and under the ground, he will follow Trump’s Europe game plan in spirit if not in letter. In other words, Biden’s America, like Trump’s, will go on shoring up and sharing Poland’s defense to blunt Russia’s westward advance, if any. As for Western Europeans, they'd better learn what we Americans have all along been learning: Freedom is not free---neither is the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

P.S. Watch Poland like a rising star, which it is. It won't hurt to keep in mind that Metropolitan Chicago happens to be home to approximately 1,900,000 people of Polish ethnicity, the largest voting Polish population outside of Poland. Geopolitically, Russia is Poland's eternal source of national threat. America is Poland's natural ally, which Trump had done much to prove. A staunch ally of America, Poland is likely on track to catch up with Germany and France. Who knows? In the distant future, Europe's center of gravity may be shifting toward Warsaw.

--- Lingyang Jiang