The second Term of United States President Donald Trump has brought a harsh reality right on Europe’s doorstep. Europe can no longer rely on the United States as a stable partner for security, trade, or technological leadership.
The ideology many have come to label as “Trumpism”, has led to a heightening of US-EU tensions, whether that be through tariffs, transactional diplomacy, threats over Greenland or a turbulent NATO.
This has overturned decades-long assumptions about transatlantic cooperation. For the first time in nearly a century, Europe must stop following and start acting, to ensure its own survival, autonomy, and global influence.
This is the foundation of what I will refer to as Realignmentism: a doctrine that redefines European power not as a byproduct of American goodwill, but as the outcome of trade diversification, institutional reform, and assertiveness on the global stage.
Crucially, realignmentism opens a fascinating opportunity. To ensure its own long-term survival and competitiveness, Europe will likely have to embrace a sort of libertarian realignmentism – with a focus on global free trade, rights leadership and a competitive business environment.
Global Free Markets and Europe’s Global Assertiveness
It is now Europe, not the United States, that must carry the mantle of freedom, democracy, and liberal economic engagement on the global stage. Trumpism has not only weakened America’s credibility as a reliable partner; but it has actively reshaped U.S. foreign policy into a transactional and unilateral project. In this environment, European passivity would be abdication from responsibility on the global stage.
This moment demands a libertarian-style approach to European power. Not libertarianism as withdrawal or isolation, but as strategic openness, and a contrast to the United States – free trade instead of tariffs; competition instead of protectionism; and voluntary cooperation instead of coercion. In a world where power is increasingly exercised through economic pressure and political leverage, Europe’s greatest strength lies in its ability to build open systems that others choose to join.
This is precisely why trade agreements such as EU–MERCOSUR are not merely economic instruments, but also strategic ones. At a time when the Trump administration has pursued military pressure against Venezuela, issued threats towards Colombia and Cuba, and sought to consolidate political influence across Latin America, Europe has a choice – retreat into regulatory isolation or assert itself through openness.
If Europe wishes to be an assertive (and competitive) global actor under the realignment doctrine, it must recognise that trade policy is foreign policy. Expanding trade with Latin America, India, Africa, and Southeast Asia is not about undercutting allies, but about ensuring that Europe remains central to the global economy rather than peripheral to a world divided into rival blocs.
ChatControl – Europe as a Standards Setter
A libertarian-style approach to realignment places individual rights at the centre of European power. Privacy is not a secondary concern to be traded for security; it is a foundational pillar of freedom, innovation, and trust. Strong encryption and the protection of private communications enable secure commerce, protect journalists and dissidents, and foster technological development. Undermining them weakens Europe’s digital ecosystem and aligns it, unintentionally, with the surveillance practices of illiberal states.
Europe has long exercised influence as a standards setter, from data protection under GDPR to competition policy. But standards only matter when they are principled and consistent. ChatControl risks transforming Europe from a model of rights-based regulation into an exporter of surveillance norms, providing authoritarian governments with political cover to justify their own excesses.
If Europe is to lead a realigned liberal order, it must demonstrate that security and freedom are not mutually exclusive. Rejecting mass surveillance, defending encryption, and upholding digital privacy would reaffirm Europe’s unique role: shaping global technology governance through liberty rather than control. In an era of Trumpism, geopolitical fragmentation, and digital authoritarianism, rights leadership is not a luxury,it is a strategic necessity.
EU-INC and forming a business environment that can compete globally
With both the United States and China accelerating far ahead of Europe in innovation, artificial intelligence, energy, and strategic technologies, the need for reform is no longer ideological – it is existential. Fragmented markets, regulatory complexity, and inconsistent national frameworks have left Europe structurally disadvantaged.
This is where EU-INC, often referred to as the 28th Regime, becomes central to Europe’s realignment. By allowing businesses to incorporate under a single European legal framework, with registration possible within 48 hours and the freedom to operate seamlessly across the entire single market, EU-INC directly tackles one of Europe’s deepest structural weaknesses: market fragmentation. Instead of navigating 27 different legal, tax, and administrative systems, entrepreneurs would be able to build European firms from day one.
The strategic implications are significant. A unified business environment would strengthen Europe’s internal resilience, reduce dependence on foreign platforms, and accelerate innovation in AI, clean energy, biotech, and advanced manufacturing. It would also reinforce Europe’s credibility as a global economic leader – not just a rule-maker, but a rule-enabler.
In the context of Trumpism and geopolitical realignment, competitiveness is sovereignty. If Europe wishes to act independently on the world stage, it must first be capable of generating growth, innovation, and technological power internally. EU-INC offers a practical, market-driven path towards that goal, aligning libertarian economic principles with Europe’s urgent need for strategic autonomy through strength, not protectionism.
A Libertarian Approach to Re-Arm Europe
Europe’s security environment has changed fundamentally. Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and Trump’s interest in Greenland means that the question of European defence is no longer one of ideological preference, but of strategic necessity. This reality is reflected in policy: the EU’s approval of an €800 billion rearmament package marks a clear shift from strategic complacency to urgency.
A libertarian-compatible solution lies in a coalition-of-the-willing model, similar to the structure of the eurozone. Rather than imposing a unified military framework on all member states, participation would be voluntary, limited, and conditional. Neutral countries such as Malta and Austria would retain their constitutional and political neutrality, while willing states could integrate capabilities, procurement, and command structures where mutual interest exists.
Strategic autonomy does not require a European super-state. It requires the capacity to deter aggression without dependence on unpredictable allies. A coalition-based defence architecture achieves this while remaining consistent with libertarian commitments to consent, decentralisation, and limited authority.
Liberalism Through Strength, Openness, and Choice
Trumpism has forced Europe to confront a reality it long sought to avoid: the post-war assumption of permanent American leadership is no longer a reliable foundation for European security, prosperity, or influence. In a world of renewed great-power competition, transactional alliances, and ideological fragmentation, Europe can no longer afford to define itself in opposition to power. It must learn to exercise it.
The choice facing Europe is therefore not between liberty and security, or markets and sovereignty. It is between stagnation and adaptation. By embracing a libertarian path to realignment, one grounded in openness, institutional restraint, and strategic confidence, Europe can emerge not merely as a participant in the new global order, but as its liberal anchor.
In an era defined by Trumpism, authoritarian resurgence, and geopolitical uncertainty, Europe’s most radical move may also be its most familiar one: to lead by example, and make liberalism competitive again.
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This piece reflects the author’s views, not necessarily the entire magazine. We welcome a range of pro-liberty perspectives. Send us your pitch or draft.
