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Home > Talking Europe > Home alone in a hostile world: Is 2026 the year Europe will fend for itself?


	Podcast:		Talking Europe
	Episode:		Home alone in a hostile world: Is 2026 the year Europe will fend for itself?
	Category:		News & Politics
	Duration:		00:12:43
	Publish Date:		2026-01-09 15:54:18
	Description:		As 2026 gets off to a rocky start, Europe finds itself squeezed between brute force and awkward dependence. After the US seizure of Venezuela's leader, President Donald Trump has openly floated using military force to acquire Greenland, part of NATO member Denmark. European leaders insist it will not happen. The harder question is whether they could stop it if Washington decided otherwise. Read moreTaking over Greenland, a long-standing US obsession FRANCE 24's Douglas Herbert asks two European policy gurus whether Europe can just say "No" to Donald Trump. Nicolas Tenzer is an author, political blogger and foreign policy specialist, and Nathalie Tocci, the director of Italy's Istituto Affari Internazionali is a leading voice on the EU's role in a changing world. Europe relies on Trump's support to keep Ukraine afloat, yet is expected to defend the sovereignty of one of its own members against him. A dilemma that Tenzer and Tocci agree has a moral, as well as political, dimension. Ukraine looms just as large. With Washington offering vague assurances and Russian President Vladimir Putin rejecting security guarantees outright, Europe faces an unsettling prospect: guarantees that may never be worth more than the paper they are written on. Putin insists he will fight on until victory, leaving Europe to confront whether Ukraine risks being pushed into a bad deal shaped by big-power bargaining between Moscow and Washington – with Kyiv and Europe sidelined. Watch more'Not what you see on the map': French ambassador to Ukraine challenges Russia's victory narrative So is Europe wasting precious time on a diplomatic dance with little chance of success? Can it hold its own in a back-to-the-future world where might makes right? And if both Trump and Putin are prepared to impose outcomes, what room is left for European power, principle and choice? Programme prepared by Oihana Almandoz, Perrine Desplats and Isabelle Romero
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