Letters to the Editor: Ireland needs new defence strategies

'The world has changed, and so too must our approach to security'

JD Vance warned European leaders their biggest security threat was not from China or Russia, but 'the enemy within'. Picture: Drew Angerer/Getty

US vice president Vance’s recent rebuke of Europe, combined with US president Trump’s provocative comments on Europe, Ukraine, and Nato, have heightened tensions and forced member states to confront the uneasy balance between collective European interests and their own national priorities, two forces that do not always align.

Mr Trump’s unorthodox and frequently controversial approach has become a catalyst for a long-overdue reckoning with Europe’s defence vulnerabilities.