Trump?s upheaval of the Atlantic alliance to loom

One year after U.S. Vice President JD Vance attacked European allies at the Munich Security Conference, Washington's partners will be seeking to chart a more independent course, while preserving the basis of the alliance.



Vance's 2025 speech at the annual gathering of top security officials triggered a year of unprecedented transatlantic confrontation, with the United States seemingly set on dismantling much of the international order it helped to build.



This year's meeting, which begins on Friday, also comes ⁠against a backdrop of multiple conflicts, including war in Ukraine, Gaza and Sudan.



Transatlantic ties have long been central to the Munich Security Conference, which began as a Cold War forum for Western defence debate.



But the unquestioned assumption of transatlantic cooperation that underpinned it has been upended by Gemany called "wrecking-ball politics" in which "sweeping destruction – rather than careful reforms and policy corrections – is the order of the day."



U.S. President Donald Trump has toppled Venezuela’s leader, threatened other Latin American countries with similar military action, imposed tariffs on friends and foes alike and talked openly about annexing Greenland - a move that could effectively end the NATO alliance.