Venezuela Shows Central Europe’s Precarious Position in a World Governed by Power

In a CNN interview last week, Stephen Miller, Donald Trump’s hardline ‘America First’ adviser, laid out the perspective: we live in a world ‘governed by strength, by force, by power’. Coming from the US administration, that’s grim news for Central and Eastern Europe.

Not a single state in the region packs enough punch to safeguard its democratic and economic security alone. The same goes for every other EU member. But despite the terror of realism, some regional leaders still choose different paths to global turmoil. While members of the Coalition of the Willing, Ukraine and the United States (US) met in Paris last week nearly all Central and Eastern European NATO countries were represented. Slovakia and Hungary did join. Neither North Macedonia nor Montenegro were present while Albania was the only one from the Western Balkans region.

Leaders also echoed concerns over the US intervention in Venezuela in divergence. Most of the Coalition of the Willing states shrug their shoulders on capture of Maduro. Speaking earlier that week, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, could not resist a sardonic jab: if dictators could be dealt with in this manner, Washington knew what to do next – aimed squarely at Vladimir Putin. But Slovakia’s Prime Minister (PM) Fico warned that the US action sets a dangerous precedent undermining the post-WWII world order. Belarus, a Moscow ally, ‘categorically condemns the act of American aggression’, mirroring obviously Russia’s narratives. And yet Viktor Orban had his own view, as we report in the Hungary section below.

Energy hypocrisy

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