The debate generated this week around Greenland has taken focus away, according to Defense expert Jane Harman, from Europe’s main strategic priority: the war in Ukraine and the response to the Russian offensiveas reported by EFE.
Harman, chair of the US National Defense Strategy Commission, expressed this concern during a panel held at the World Economic Forum in Davos, where she lamented that European support for kyiv is not being enough and also criticized Washington’s limited involvement in the conflict.
In his opinion, the Ukrainian resistance remains firm despite the lack of resources. “I think the most powerful weapon Ukrainians have is their hearts. They will never stop fighting,” he said, before adding that Europe “has not been as useful as it could” and that the United States “has been quite absent.”
The expert defended that support for Ukraine does not respond only to geopolitical interests, but to the defense of fundamental democratic principles. In that sense, he maintained that the current situation has its roots in mistakes made after the end of the Cold War, when the West failed to anticipate the rise of Russian resentment. “We overlooked, through our arrogance, the rise of Russian resentment”, he noted, personalizing that process in the figure of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin.
Harman recalled a meeting with the Russian president at the 2007 Munich Security Conference, where, as he said, he clearly perceived his intentions. “He laid out what he planned to do, and what he plans to do, or is doing, which is to restore the Russian Empire,” he said, an impression that, he confessed, It gave him “chills.”
In her analysis of the international context, the expert also pointed to the role of Donald Trump, who she assured admires authoritarian leaders. “Donald Trump admires strong men, especially Putin and Xi Jinping”he stated.
Finally, regarding the general climate of the Davos Forum, Harman explained that he detected two parallel debates: one focused on the technological revolution and artificial intelligence, with its transformative potential and its risks if used improperly, and another dominated by international politics, marked—as he said—by Trump’s passage.
