As part of the Nuremberg Security Conference 2025, Prof. Dr. Ulrich Schlie, Director of the Center for Advanced Security, Strategic and Integration Studies (CASSIS) and holder of the Henry Kissinger Chair for Security and Strategy Research at the University of Bonn, analyzed the profound upheavals in the international order and their impact on Europe.
Against the backdrop of US domestic policy under Donald Trump and growing global instability, Schlie called for a realistic reassessment of European security policy. Trump's re-election is a “harbinger of systemic change” that is increasingly distancing the United States from its traditional allies. Europe must therefore prepare for a “post-American era” - and reposition itself in terms of security policy and strategy.
Together with other experts, Schlie emphasized that Europe must take much more responsibility for its own security in the future. Not least, the military dimension of international power should no longer be ignored or romanticized. Deterrence, according to the tenor of the conference, can only be guaranteed by a credible military capacity to act. With this in mind, Schlie called for a strategic reorientation: Europe must reduce its dependence on the USA in terms of security and defense policy and strengthen its own capabilities - not as a rejection of the transatlantic partnership, but as a necessary addition in an increasingly multipolar world order.