Månad: februari 2026

Secretary of State:  Thank you very much.  We gather here today as members of a historic alliance, an alliance that saved and changed the world.  When this conference began in 1963, it was in a nation – actually, it was on a continent – that was divided against itself.  The line between communism and freedom ran through the heart of Germany.  The first barbed fences of the Berlin Wall had gone up just two years prior.

And just months before that first conference, before our predecessors first met here, here in Munich, the Cuban Missile Crisis had brought the world to the brink of nuclear destruction.  Even as World War II still burned fresh in the memory of Americans and Europeans alike, we found ourselves staring down the barrel of a new global catastrophe – one with the potential for a new kind of destruction, more apocalyptic and final than anything before in the history of mankind.

At the time of that first gathering, Soviet communism was on the march.  Thousands of years of Western civilization hung in the balance.  At that time, victory was far from certain.  But we were driven by a common purpose.  We were unified not just by what we were fighting against; we were unified by what we were fighting for.  And together, Europe and America prevailed and a continent was rebuilt.  Our people prospered.  In time, the East and West blocs were reunited. A civilization was once again made whole.

That infamous wall that had cleaved this nation into two came down, and with it an evil empire, and the East and West became one again.  But the euphoria of this triumph led us to a dangerous delusion:  that we had entered, quote, “the end of history;” that every nation would now be a liberal democracy; that the ties formed by trade and by commerce alone would now replace nationhood; that the rules-based global order – an overused term – would now replace the national interest; and that we would now live in a world without borders where everyone became a citizen of the world. Läs talet

Det är hos Newsweek amiral Keith Blount tonar ner rädslan för splittring mellan USA och dess europeiska allierade inom Nato.

”Jag tvivlar inte på att den transatlantiska unionen är extremt stark”, säger Blount.

Amiral Blount är på väg att lämna sin post men säger hos Newsweek tydligt att han inte ser någon risk för en splittring inom Nato.

Keith Blount säger att han instämmer i huvuddragen i USA:s kritik av andra Nato-länder, men avfärdar tanken på att vi kan få se ett dramatiskt, plötsligt tillbakadragande av amerikanska trupper från Europa.

”Jag tror verkligen inte att vi plötsligt kommer att vakna en morgon och upptäcka att USA bara har lämnat utan att berätta för oss”, säger Blount hos Newsweek.

”Det är inte alls så det kommer att fungera.”

Amiralen menar att USA kommer att ha en dialog med Europa, som ger kontinenten ”möjlighet” att gripa in och ta över vissa områden. ”När vi fyllt de luckorna kommer vi att må bättre av att ha gjort det”, tillägger han. Läs artikel

Nu hävdar en ledande professor i internationell rätt att USA och det amerikanska imperiet är på väg mot ”kollaps och förstörelse”.

Martti Koskenniemi är professor emeritus i internationell rätt vid Helsingfors universitet, och internationellt känd för sitt arbete inom folkrätt.

Nu varnar han för att utvecklingen i USA är mer oroväckande än vad många tror.

– Jag har tänkt att det amerikanska imperiet håller på att kollapsa och falla sönder i USA, säger Koskenniemi till Iltalehti.

USA och dess roll i världen har förändrats i en rasande fart. De senaste veckorna har Trump-administrationen bland annat attackerat Venezuela samt skärpt sina hot mot Grönland, som tillhör en Nato-allierad. Läs artikel

[…] In this environment, the United States is prioritizing the most consequential threats to Americans’ interests, especially the defense of the U.S. homeland and interests in the Western Hemisphere, as well as reinforcing deterrence by denial in the Western Pacific. At the same time – and critically – the United States and its allies must be prepared for the possibility that potential opponents will act simultaneously across multiple theaters, whether in a coordinated fashion or opportunistically. […]

The core strategic reality laid out by the NSS and NDS is this: Europe must assume primary responsibility for its own conventional defense.

This is not a matter of ideology or rhetorical flourish. It is a conclusion grounded in a clear-eyed and rigorous assessment of the strategic environment we face as well as a pragmatic evaluation of the capabilities at our disposal.

Europe has immense strengths: it is wealthy, populous, and has formidable industrial and technological capabilities. And Europe faces, on its own continent, a real and persistent military challenge.

At the same time, the United States must – and will – prioritize those theaters and challenges where only American power can play a decisive role, as the National Defense Strategy lays out. That is not a retreat from Europe. It is, rather, an affirmation of strategic pragmatism and a recognition of our allies’ undeniable ability to step up and lead on Europe’s defense in a way that leaves all of us stronger and safer. By leveraging our respective strengths and specializing in areas where we are best positioned to act, we can build a more balanced, effective, and resilient Alliance.

Under President Trump’s leadership, we are reprioritizing the defense of our homeland and the protection of our interests in our Hemisphere. We are grappling forthrightly with the fact that the Indo-Pacific is now a central arena of geopolitics, one with fundamental implications for American security, economic vitality, and technological leadership.

It follows that Europe should field the preponderance of the forces required to deter and, if necessary, defeat conventional aggression in Europe. […]

For Europe, it means moving beyond inputs and intentions toward outputs and capabilities. Defense spending levels matter, and there is no substitute for it. But what matters at the end of the day is what those resources produce: ready forces, usable munitions, resilient logistics, and integrated command structures that work at scale under stress.

Thus, for the United States, our responsibility is to be clear, candid, and consistent. We will continue to provide the U.S. extended nuclear deterrent. And we will also continue, in a more limited and focused fashion, to provide conventional capabilities that contribute to NATO’s defense. Our commitment is to be candid with you, both in regard to the timeline and scale of change, and about the challenges and tradeoffs we face. We will continue to train, exercise, and plan alongside our allies. And we in the Department of War will continue to ready our forces to do our part under Article V with Europe taking the lead for its conventional defense. Läs talet

Sverige, Frankrike, Tyskland, Italien, Polen och Storbritannien har undertecknat en avsiktsförklaring om samarbete kring utveckling och standardisering av långräckviddiga lågkostnadssystem baserade på engångsverkande vapensystem. Arbetet sker inom ramen för European Long-range Strike Approach (ELSA).

– Ett modulärt obemannat system med en räckvidd som överstiger 500 kilometer möjliggör djup precisionsbekämpning mot högvärdiga mål som logistikhubbar och luftförsvar. Systemet är utformat för skalbarhet och stärker avskräckningen genom volym och räckvidd. För Europa och Nato bidrar detta till en mer balanserad transatlantisk ansvarsfördelning och ökat operativt djup., skriver försvarsminister Pål Jonson på X. Läs artikel

Sverige kommer att bidra med stridsflyg (JAS 39 Gripen) till den nyetablerade Natooperationen Arctic Sentry. Operationen har till uppgift att bidra till säkerhet i Arktis och Höga Nord.

Ukraina vill använda EU-stöd för att köpa det svenska stridsplanet Gripen. Det uppger försvarsminister Pål Jonson (M) efter att ha träffat sin nye ukrainske kollega Mykhailo Fedorov i samband med EU:s försvarsministermöte.

– Genom de här 90 miljarder euro som vi har kunnat försäkra oss om, så kommer Ukraina också att vilja använda en del av de medlen för att kunna börja finansiera Gripen och uppbyggnaden av ett starkare luftförsvar, säger Jonson.

EU har sedan tidigare beslutat att låna upp 90 miljarder euro till Ukraina, varav en stor del får användas för vapeninköp.

När det kan bli aktuellt för Ukraina att köpa Gripen kan Jonson inte svara på.

– Vi jobbar med det kontinuerligt och för en väldigt intensiv dialog med Ukraina, säger han. Läs artikel

[…]“We don’t exclude a land grab from Russia as part of their plan to protect their own nuclear capabilities, which is the only thing they have left that actually threatens the United States,” said Gen Eirik Kristoffersen, Norway’s chief of defense.

He conceded that Russia did not have conquest goals in Norway in the same way as it had in Ukraine or other former Soviet territories, but said much of Russia’s nuclear arsenal was located on the Kola peninsula, a short distance from the Norwegian border, including nuclear submarines, land-based missiles and nuclear-capable aircraft. These would be crucial if Russia came into conflict with Nato elsewhere. […]

Kristoffersen said that while Norway was keeping the threat of a traditional Russian invasion in mind, the current Russian tactics were more diffuse. “If you prepare for the worst, there is nothing that prevents you from also being able to counter sabotage and more hybrid threats,” he said.

He added, however, that Norway and Russia still maintained some direct contact over search and rescue missions in the Barents Sea, and that there were regular meetings at the border between representatives of the two militaries.

He has recommended setting up a military hotline between the two capitals to have a channel of communication to avoid escalation based on misunderstanding. He said Russian actions in the far north had generally been less aggressive than those in the Baltic Sea.

“So far, what we have seen of airspace violation in our area has been misunderstandings. Russia is conducting a lot of [GPS] jamming, and we think that the jamming also affects their aircraft,” he said.

“They haven’t said that, but we see that when something like violating the airspace happens it’s usually because of a lack of experience from the pilots. When we talk with the Russians, they actually respond in a very professional and predictable way.”

On Norway’s northern territory of Svalbard, which contains a Russian settlement and is not allowed to be militarised under the provisions of a 1920 treaty, Kristoffersen said Russia was “respecting the treaty” and that Norway had no plans to militarise the area.

Moscow has accused Oslo of performing stealth militarisation of Svalbard but Kristoffersen said this was just a propaganda claim that Moscow did not really believe. Läs artikel

I Europa har vi utviklet en egen form for politisk meteorologi. Når det blåser i Washington, trekker vi skjerfet litt tettere rundt halsen i Brussel – fordi erfaringen har lært oss at stormer over Atlanteren sjeldent forblir lokale.

Derfor var Trumps tilbakekomst i Det hvite hus aldri bare et amerikansk anliggende. Det var et studium i makt, og hvordan den oppfører seg løsrevet fra institusjoner, normer og rett.

For europeere er staten først og fremst et langsiktig prosjekt. En treg, men robust konstruksjon av lover, praksis og institusjoner – utformet for å overleve middelmådige, inkompetente og tidvis farlige ledere. Oppsummert: statsledere kommer og går, staten skal bestå. Läs artikel