Commentary
International Relations
Trump’s Second Term a Crossroads for Central Europe – COMMENTARY
6 November 2024
24 February 2021
If Joe Biden’s clear stance in Munich is followed by action and concrete policies, Central Europe will be faced with a choice that they did not have to make in the previous years. While there is no space for appeasement with Russia, Central Europeans can no longer balance interests and renounce liberal democracy.
Munich brings chilly association to the minds of Central Europeans. It was here that the West – represented back then by France and the United Kingdom – chose to abandon democratic Czechoslovakia in the hope of appeasing fascist Germany in 1938.
As the subsequent tragic history shows, appeasing dictators does not work. Inevitably, appeasement leads to further demands and eventually armed conflict.
The Munich Security Conference, which has been ongoing since 1963, has always aimed to ease tensions in international relations and facilitate dialogue. In 2009, United States Vice-President Joe Biden chose this venue to announce the ‘reset’ in American-Russian relations.