If it weren’t for how ludicrous it sounds, it would have been proper to say that the United States of America must have read and implemented appropriate sections from the 48 Laws of Power in its dealings with the world, particularly in its relations with the countries of Europe. 

Conversely, this line of thought shows the opposite is true for EU-US relations and perhaps explains why Robert Greene in his book suggested in one of its laws to ‘never put too much trust in friends’. 

In this article, we will look at the events that served as pull-strings for the US as exposed by its VP —JD Vance, during his speech at the 2025 Munich Security Conference. Thanks to the people at The Guardian the speech has been fact-checked. Here, we will analyze it to see why it likely served as motivation for EU Tech Leaders’ recent letter to the European Commission president calling for the continent’s digital sovereignty from America. Then, we’ll see where to go from there.

Conceal your Intentions, America. 

Understanding the changing geopolitical landscape of our present world involves understanding how each of the world’s major players came to become powerful. 

For this article, our focal point is the US so we’d stay here. However, it might be helpful for individuals to study the two other major players —Russia, and China, to be able to predict our future.

America’s rise to global power started during the two world wars that devastated Europe and a small part of the world. 

Again, there would be no point chronicling them here. Nonetheless, those wars led to economic instability —first in Europe then globally, that put the EU countries at the mercy of America —law 13, which by the end of the war held more than 90% of Europe’s gold as collateral for loans it made to the continent during the war. 

“The fact that many countries, accept as principle that the dollar is as good as gold leads America to go into debt, and to get into debt for free at the expense of other countries because what the US owes is paid with the dollar [US] alone can print — Charles DeGaulle. 

Consequently, this unfortunate stretch of true money as established in Germany in 1873 with the classical Gold Standard, and adjusted severally up until the end of the Second World War meant that the world needed a new monetary system.

As Mike Maloney narrated in The Hidden Secrets Of Money, the move away from the Gold Standard in which fiat currency served as a receipt for real money—gold, to the Gold Exchange Standard where fiat currency is only partially backed by gold at a specific ratio, to The Bretton Woods system and later the Dollar Standard that allowed America to print dollars without gold backing was what set the US on the path of global & European dominion. 

Backsliding Conscience Rights & Thought Crimes

Between the First and Second Wars, for instance, there were record levels of migration from Europe to America which not only meant that Europe lost its best brains to its younger colony but also, deepened Europe’s dependence on America —breaking the 11th law.  

Nevertheless, this wouldn’t have mattered much if the instability in local American polity had not meant that the US now sees the EU as subordinate rather than colleagues whose actions can be influenced 80 or so years after it had become a ‘freeloader’ to America, according to Texas Republican Senator, John Cornyn. 

In the speech we referenced above, one incident that served as a pull string with which America tried to do this with the UK was that of a man named Adam Smith-Conner. 

Conner was convicted of violating a recently introduced Public Order Act that prohibits certain activities within a safe zone of 150 meters around abortion clinics in England and Wales to stop women from being harassed with leaflets or having to pass by vigils targeted at getting them to change their minds.    

Why does VP Vance’s support for Smith against an established law of British people matter, you may ask? Well, his support as seen in his speech deriding the UK for its ‘backsliding away from conscience rights’ showed for the first time America’s ready willingness to use its influence on the country whenever it chooses to do so.

Perhaps more importantly, it highlighted the enormous advantage that the UK and the rest of the EU have allowed to accrue to the US with respect to their internal affairs.

In the same aforementioned speech, Vance mentioned the Scottish government had “…urged [people] to report any fellow citizens suspected guilty of thought crime in Britain and across Europe.” with respect to the country’s implementation of the Public Order Act. 

Of course, as previously shown these were popular laws. However, since they do not align with the ideologies of the present American administration, it and many other incidents necessitated the US to use its influence on Europe to try to change them. 

Romania Election Cancellation 

Perhaps, I should mention before proceeding that we take no moral position on any of these issues at all. 

Our intention here is to provide context for why the EU tech leader may have felt the need to be sovereign in regards to its technology since it has become glaring—as Robert observed from history, that those who hold power over another would sooner or later use it. 

With the letter to the EC president, there are indications that Europe has realized that it may become almost wholly dependent on non-European technologies in strategic sectors of the future such as cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and chip manufacturing. 

In fact, there were reports that European diplomats and officials were stunned by the VP’s speech at the 2025 Munich Security Conference. So much so that it led to «a room full of people with their mouths open». Inevitably, this reaction may help to explain the change in the EU’s relation with US tech in the future, if it does change. 

That said, a second event that the new US administration had concerns about as stated by VP Vance was the cancellation of the Romanian election in December on what its constitutional court called strong suspicion of election interference by an external force suspected to be Russia. 

According to declassified documents, an independent candidate in the election —Călin Georgescu, who had committed to stop all Romanian political and military support for Ukraine in its ongoing war with Russia if elected and who won an early round of the country’s election, got suspicious support on social media platform —TikTok, for his campaign.

To Vance and the new American administration, this action seems like setting a precedent that could lead to constant suppression of far-right politicians whose views may in fact represent the will of the people. 

Criticism of Sweden’s Freedom of Expression Laws

Going further, Vance criticized Sweden for convicting a Christian activist for participating in Qur’an burnings stating that the country’s court ‘chillingly noted’ that it does not grant a ‘free pass’  to do or say anything without risking offending the group that holds that belief. 

Again to Vance, this sets a dangerous precedence of suppressing the protection of the human rights of free expression.  

Thunberg-Musk & Germany

Finally, talking about the recently concluded election in the conference’s host country, Vance reminded German listeners that internal threats were the greatest dangers to European democracy, not external challenges from Russia or China. 

He noted mass immigration as Europe’s most significant problem, citing record levels of foreign-born residents in Germany and increased EU immigration from non-EU countries due to what he called «conscious decisions» from European leaders. Continuing, he connected a recent attack by a foreign-born migrant on trade union demonstrators in Munich on the eve of the conference to argue for tighter migration policies for Europe. 

Speaking further, VP Vance accused EU leaders of using «ugly, Soviet-era words like misinformation and disinformation» to hide «old, entrenched interests» against alternative viewpoints that «might express a different opinion, or, God forbid, vote a different way—or even worse, win an election». 

When asked about how Elon Musk —a significant figure in the US administration, tried to elicit local support for a German far-right party through constant promotion on social media, the VP noted that «if American democracy can survive 10 years of Greta Thunberg scolding, you guys can survive a few months of Elon Musk» 

Where to Go From Here

What the changing geopolitical relations between Europe and America have shown is the fragility of relationships to changing polity and local ideology. 

The changing political landscape has exposed the vulnerability of Europe in the tech space and perhaps it explains why the European digital sovereignty movement has been gaining momentum. 

According to a paper published in January, the objective of this move is to “…reduce Europe’s current total dependency on non-European actors for service to European citizens, businesses, and institutions, to enhance security, create redundancy and resilience, improve opportunities for innovation and digital competitiveness while establishing European governance rules.”

Although reversing this decades-long dependency on America’s tech is commendable and most likely a step in the right direction of Europe’s world re-dominance, hopefully before then, the countries of the continent know to take cognizance of the first golden rule of power while it’s still relevant —never outshine the master. 

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