End of western alliance means UK must be bolder, says Chatham House director

"The risk of staying silent and not standing up for the principles that have underpinned the liberal international order is that those principles do indeed become an article of history and not the foundation of the world we want to live in. She added: The UK has performed a balancing act of some agility but to the point where it is hard to discern the policy."

"Maddox described Trump's impulsiveness, taste for military action and rejection of international law as amounting to a revolution. She said US allies must now contemplate what was unthinkable: to defend themselves against the US, in both trade and security. It is not grandiose to call this the end of the western alliance, she said, in the sense of countries sharing principles of individual liberty, intellectual and religious freedom, constitutional democracy and free trade at their heart."

"She said in recent months we had seen the rejection of principles of international law that the US helped forge even if it often declined to apply those to itself. Venezuela is the latest example, Maddox said. Trump's intention to acquire Greenland is an offence against the UN charter and the prohibition on taking territory by force. If he did so by using force, as his team has threatened, it would be the end of Nato."

Trump's impulsiveness, taste for military action and rejection of international law amount to a revolutionary shift that weakens the foundations of the Western alliance. Core principles—individual liberty, intellectual and religious freedom, constitutional democracy and free trade—have driven prosperity and global influence but now face erosion. Allies may need to defend themselves against the US in trade and security rather than rely on traditional alignments. Recent rejections of international law, including actions around Venezuela and a threatened attempt to acquire Greenland, illustrate a breakdown in norms that could end NATO cohesion and require new alliances to uphold shared principles.

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