Germany’s chancellor, Mertz, used the opening of the 62nd Munich Security Conference on February 13 to deliver a blunt admonition to Washington: the United States lacks the capacity to act alone and Europe must move quickly to reduce excessive dependence on American power. Speaking in Munich, he framed the argument as practical and principle-based, insisting that support for free trade, climate agreements and international institutions such as the World Health Organization requires collective action rather than unilateralism.
The intervention is the latest iteration of a long-running European debate over “strategic autonomy” — the idea that Europe should be able to protect its interests without always relying on a U.S. security umbrella. Mertz’s remarks recast that debate in starker terms, tying it to recent shocks in global politics: shifting U.S. priorities, the war in Ukraine, trade disruptions and the challenge of climate change, all of which, he argued, demand coordinated response rather than solo manoeuvres.
The chancellor’s call also carries domestic and transatlantic political weight. For Berlin, the push for intensified European cooperation serves multiple aims: reassuring voters that Germany will defend its economic and security interests, bolstering the European Union’s hand in negotiations, and nudging allies toward a more rules-based, predictable approach to global governance.
For Washington, the message is a mixed one. It can be read as a plea for resumed U.S. leadership within multilateral frameworks, but also as an electoral-era rebuke to unilateral policies that have frustrated European capitals in recent years. If European governments press hard for operational independence in defence, industrial policy and digital infrastructure, the transatlantic relationship will have to adapt from a simple provider–client model to a partnership of more equal and sometimes divergent interests.
The wider significance extends beyond NATO and EU capitals. A credible European push for autonomy would reshape the triangular dynamics between Europe, the United States and China. Europeans who seek to hedge against unilateral pressure may pursue deeper trade ties and pragmatic engagements with Beijing on climate and commerce, even as they uphold human-rights rhetoric and selective sanctions. The net effect is likely to be a more complex, multipolar diplomatic playing field where cooperation is conditional and multilateral institutions become the arena for contested norms.
Mertz’s Munich intervention is at once tactical and rhetorical. It signals to domestic audiences that Berlin intends to anchor itself in multilateralism while also pressuring partners to deliver. Whether Europe can translate talk of autonomy into credible military, economic and technological capabilities is another question — one that will determine whether the continent becomes a truly independent actor or simply a more assertive junior partner in an evolving global order.