Back in December, I was attending a conference in Hannover, Germany on Ukraine and European Security. Addressing my hosts, I said the following to my European friends and colleagues: “I’ve got some bad news, some good news, and some more bad news. The bad news is that it is probably 1941. The good news is that this time you get to be the Americans. But the other bad news is that this time you probably have to be the Americans.”
In a similar vein, last week, after the call between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin was announced, Marko Mihkelson, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of Estonian Parliament, tweeted the following: “Today might go down in history as a dark day for Europe. It now depends on European leaders to finally recognize that we must take our fate into our own hands – right now.”
And in a post on his Substack this week, Yale University historian Timothy Snyder wrote the following: “If the European Union is to survive, and if Ukraine is to survive, 2025 will have to be the year that Europeans take charge of their own interests.”
It is clearly Europe’s moment to seize. Is Europe ready and willing to do so?
On The Power Vertical Podcast this week, host Brian Whitmore speaks with veteran Swedish diplomat Fredrik Lojdquist, director of the Stockholm Center for Eastern European Studies in the Swedish Institute of International Affairs.
Enjoy…
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SHOW NOTES
The sound clip opening the podcast came from a speech by Ukrainian President Volodyyr Zelensky on February 20, 2025. The translation is as follows:
“We need a just peace – one worthy of the nation that so bravely defends itself. I am proud of you, Ukrainians! And I see how you defend the truth. This is extremely important. Thank you! Thank you for your support!
Glory to Ukraine!”
The clip opening the second half of the podcast came from a speech by Kaja Kallas, the European Union’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs, at The Munich Security Conference.
“As I stand here in Munich tonight, I cannot help but ask: have we been here before? Czechoslovakia. 1938. We have an aggressor at our door intent on taking land that isn’t his. And the negotiators, not us, are already giving away their bargaining chips before the negotiations have even begun.”
Fredrik Lojdquist’s recently published works can be accessed here.
The Power Vertical Newsletter on Substack can be accessed here. Recently published work by Brian Whitmore can be accessed here, here, and here. Please follow Brian Whitmore and The Power Vertical on Bluesky @powervertical.bsky.social
The article by Ann Applebaum in The Atlantic, “The End of the Postwar World,” which was referenced on the podcast, can be accessed here.