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7/7/18

EU: Trump may be doing the European Union and NATO a big favor - by Judy Dempsey

President Donald Trump is on a crusade to undermine the multilateral institutions that the United States and Europe built after 1945 – and there’s no question that he’s already eroding the trust between Washington and its European allies.

Yet the general outpourings of angst and indignation about the fate of the transatlantic community are obscuring an intriguing possibility: that the Trump phenomenon could actually prove to be good for the European Union and NATO. Both organizations have long acknowledged their own need for substantive reform – and then essentially waited for someone else to goad them into action. Despite his own destructive tendencies, Trump may well prove to be the catalyst they need.

Until Trump came onto the scene, neither organization had to think or act strategically. The transatlantic relationship was taken for granted, as was the international rulebook. But now Trump is pushing European elites out of their comfort zone, forcing them to think through their security, defense and foreign policies.

Read more: Trump may be doing the European Union and NATO a big favor - The Washington Post

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