Geopolitics | NatSec.ca

Germany is preparing its foreign intelligence service for a world where the US stops information sharing

Germany wants to boost and unfetter its country’s foreign intelligence service (BND), giving it much broader authority to perpetrate acts of sabotage, conduct offensive cyber operations and more aggressively carry out espionage.

Germany wants to continue working with the Americans, “but if a [U.S.] president, whoever that may be, decides in the future to go it alone without the Europeans … then we must be able to stand on our own two feet,” said Marc Henrichmann, the chairman of a special committee in Germany’s Bundestag that oversees the country’s intelligence services.

Source:

Nette Nöstlinger, Politico: Germany plans to give spies vast new powers in rollback of postwar restraints https://www.politico.eu/article/germany-foreign-intelligence-agency-power-bnd/

Rubio outlines America’s far-right vision for Europe

At last year’s Munich Security Conference, US Vice President JD Vance stunned European leaders, accusing them of censorship, and suppressing far-right speech.

Today, Saturday, February 14, 2026, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio repeated many of the same hard-right MAGA ideas, though in a slightly less aggressive tone, warning Europe of ‘civilization erasure’.

Rubio told European leaders that the European continent ‘belongs with’ the US, as the two have ‘spiritual’ ties, while making white nationalistic references. Rubio called on Europe to join Trump’s far-right world order.

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German Chancellor Merz opened the Munich Security Conference saying Europe must prepare to stand more firmly on its own

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz speech at the opening of the Munich Security Conference, amounted to a strategic repositioning of Germany: still anchored in NATO, but preparing for a future in which American guarantees are less reliable and Europe must carry more responsibility.

“In the era of great powers, our freedom is no longer simply guaranteed. It is under threat,” said Merz.

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Fewer Europeans consider the US under Trump “an ally that shares our interests and values”

Célia Belin and Pawel Zerka, at the European Council on Foreign Relations, write:

Across Europe, perceptions of the superpower have further deteriorated since November 2024, when Trump was re-elected. The most-shared perspective in each country, even in traditionally NATO-loving Denmark, Poland and the UK, is that the US is only a “necessary partner” rather than “an ally that shares our interests and values”. That puts it roughly on a par with India, Turkey or even China. In some countries—including Bulgaria, France, Germany, Spain and Switzerland—a quarter or more of the respondents consider the US as a rival or even an adversary.
Only in some countries—Hungary, Poland and the UK—does this issue strongly divide the public. Three Trumpist parties in those places—Fidesz, Law and Justice (PiS) and Reform UK—are Europe’s main outliers. Many of their voters still see the US as the EU’s (or, in the UK’s case, “their country’s”) ally. But this perspective is not widely shared by supporters of other European new-right parties, including the Alternative for Germany (AfD), Brothers of Italy (FdI) and the National Rally (RN) in France. Views on the US have hardly shifted in those three electorates, despite an eventful year and MAGA’s vocal ambitions to bring them closer to its orbit. Moreover, some such parties’ voters (for example, those of the AfD or FdI) have become more critical of what Trump means for American voters than they were a year ago.

The US ambassador to NATO claims the US is not out to dismantle NATO or undermine world order

In response to the Munich Security Report 2026, Matthew Whitaker, the US ambassador to NATO, is defended the US against criticism that the Trump administration’s shift in thinking about its global policies poses a real challenge to the liberal international order.

Source:

The Guardian: US not trying to dismantle NATO or undermine current world order, US ambassador says in response to MSC’s criticism report https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2026/feb/09/europe-eu-jimmy-lai-ukraine-russia-us-portugal-latest-news-updates

Elsewhere:

Munich Security Report 2026: https://securityconference.org/en/publications/munich-security-report/2026/

MSC Report asserts Europe needs to be more assertive and militarily independent from the US administration https://natsec.ca/2026/munich-security-report-warns-europe-assertive-militarily-independent-from-us/

MSC Report asserts Europe needs to be more assertive and militarily independent from the US administration

The Munich Security Report 2026 warns the greatest challenge to the liberal international order is “coming from within” through the dramatic shift in the current US administration that no longer shares a commitment to liberal democratic norms, values, and its alliances.

The world has entered a period of wrecking-ball politics. Sweeping destruction – rather than careful reforms and policy corrections – is the order of the day. The most prominent of those who promise to free their country from the existing order’s constraints and rebuild a stronger, more prosperous nation is the current US administration. As a result, more than 80 years after construction began, the US-led post-1945 international order is now under destruction.
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Kaja Kallas’ keynote at the European Defence Agency Annual Conference 2026

Kaja Kallas is the European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission. Kaja Kallas was the first female prime minister of Estonia.

HR/VP Kaja Kallas: Keynote speech at the European Defence Agency Annual Conference 2026

Watch this video on YouTube

US threatens NORAD and continental security if Canada does not purchase more US-made F-35 fighter jets

US Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra describes the current defence relationship between the two countries as “awesome,” but stressed military interventions by the US military into Canadian airspace would increase if Canada does not increase its purchase of Lockheed Martin F-35s beyond the 16 currently on order.

The North American Air Defence Command (NORAD) is a decades-old partnership between Canada and the US which tracks inbound threats and scrambles armed jets to intercept where appropriate.

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As the world inches back to a pre-WW2 order, the ‘middle powers’ face new challenges

In any age of economic stagnation and extremes of inequality, popular trust in democratic institutions corrodes. It has been corroding not just in the US but across the Western world for decades now. As such Trump may be a symptom, not a cause, of Carney’s “rupture” with the post-World War Two order.
Watching those old men making their way through the Normandy cemeteries was a graphic and poignant reminder that democracy, the rule of law, accountable government are not naturally occurring phenomena. They are not even, historically speaking, normal. They have to be fought for, built, sustained, defended.
And that is the challenge from here facing what Mark Carney called “the middle powers”.

Source:

Allan Little, BBC https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c99kkerr93ko

High ranking Trump official invites Alberta separatists to join the US [Updated]

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent commented Thursday, January 22, 2026, on the separatist movement in Alberta, saying “I think we should let them come down into the US, and Alberta’s a natural partner for the US.”

Bessent falsely claimed the federal government would not allow Alberta to build a pipeline to the Pacific coast.

Continue reading “High ranking Trump official invites Alberta separatists to join the US [Updated]”