We are living through a geopolitical realignment the likes of which we haven't seen since the start of WW1. The "sick man of europe" was a term for the Ottoman Empire before the war to describe a formerly great and powerful player that had seen better days. I believe we are seeing that today but at a much grander scale. It seem as though Europe itself is on the brink of collapse, and is thrashing about wildly for relevance.
I firmly believe the escalation of the war in Ukraine is a direct result of Europe's energy crisis. Ukraine is sitting on massive undeveloped oil and gas that Europe needs so they can move away from dependence on Russia. Before the war Europe bought up to 40% of their energy from Russia. That has shifted dramatically since the war, with Europe buying much higher priced energy from other sources. This increase in energy prices is crushing European manufacturing and squeezing their population.
Europe is in a desperate situation with skyrocketing energy prices and a declining population. They can keep fighting over Ukraine, or switch to US supplied energy and effectively become our vassal. It appears that they have chosen war over reliance on the United States at their own peril. If this continues, there will be a hot war in Europe and we will be dragged into the conflict. Let's hope they come to their senses real quick for all our sakes.
