The signs point to escalation: In Washington, the willingness to accept an open war with Russia is growing – at Europe’s expense. While NATO states are being drawn into confrontation, Europe risks becoming the battlefield of a potential world war, writes Sevim Dagdelen
Trump pushes for total escalation – Europe is to do the fighting
The U.S. President is initiating a 180-degree shift in his Ukraine policy. Donald Trump now appears convinced that Ukraine can reclaim all its territories from Russia – including Crimea. He seems willing to initiate a full-scale escalation of the war in Ukraine to achieve this. However, it is not the U.S. that is meant to wage this war against Russia, but the EU and NATO.
The escalation has been prepared over the past weeks, with Russia repeatedly blamed for alleged threats against top EU officials and violations of NATO airspace. For example, the accusation that Russia disrupted the GPS signal of EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has since fallen apart. The alleged violation of Estonian airspace stems from a dispute between Estonia and Russia over international airspace in the Baltic Sea. It appears that Estonia unilaterally extended its previous three-mile coastal zone to twelve miles, in order to then accuse Russia of violating its airspace.
It is hardly credible that the small Baltic NATO member undertook these steps without backing from Washington. Indeed, Tallinn could count on the support of its NATO partners in the NATO Council when it raised the alleged Russian border violation there. U.S. President Donald Trump promptly declared his willingness to have Russian aircraft shot down.
NATO’s entry into the war – according to Washington’s script?
This had already been announced in the UN Security Council by Polish Foreign Minister Sikorski – the same minister who once celebrated the terrorist attack on the Nord Stream pipeline on X. German foreign policy officials, such as Mr. Hardt from the CDU, also backed the policy of escalation and announced their willingness to shoot down Russian aircraft – fully aware that such an act by German planes would amount to Germany entering the war.
All signs point to a script coming from Washington, reviving the old war goal of Biden and Baerbock – to “ruin Russia” – and now playing with the idea of a direct NATO intervention against the nuclear power. This U.S. strategy of escalation is flanked by an intensified trade war against the BRICS states, now directly targeting China as well.
For a week now, Poland has been blocking border crossings into Belarus – cutting off the most important trade route between China and Europe. Initially justified by a joint Russian-Belarusian military exercise, the border remains closed even after the drills have ended. The goal seems to be to dictate China’s trade policy – with significant additional risks for the economies of EU member states, which are putting their relations with their most important trading partner at risk.
Rollback in Latin America – World War as “collateral damage”?
The U.S. is not only pursuing a more confrontational policy in Europe. In Latin America, it is once again pushing regime change under the pretext of the war on drugs – much like in the 1970s. In Argentina, for instance, where Trump ally Javier Milei is responsible for the total collapse of the Argentine peso and the economy, the U.S. now plans to keep the country afloat with billions in loans – to prevent its protégé from completely crashing in the upcoming midterm elections in October.
The U.S. rollback policy from the Cold War era is back – and that includes propping up its own autocratic allies. One must now reckon with the United States’ willingness to fully escalate. Apparently, a decision has been made to even risk world war – in the hope that the U.S. itself can stay out of it. For the peoples of Europe, however, this scenario poses an extreme danger.
Sevim Dagdelen is a foreign policy expert for the BSW — Bundnis Sahra Wagenknecht party. She was a member of the German Bundestag from 2005 to 2025. Her book Nato: A Reckoning with the Atlantic Alliance was published by LeftWord Books.
The views expressed in the articles published on this website do not necessarily represent those of Liberation
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Image: A locator map for a Cold War II situation showing the locations of NATO (and aspirants), Russia, and China. Halo FC, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
