The Soft Power Delusion: Europe’s Arctic Wake-Up Call

When the world gets serious, the Berlaymont gets nervous.
Greenland gets leaned on, farmers get sold out, and Hungary gets “managed” like a hostile province.
John O’Brien sits down with Richard Schenk and Agnieszka Kolek to say what Brussels will only ever imply.

Greenland and the Comfort Blanket of NATO
Greenland isn’t some far-off abstraction. It’s tied to an EU member state, plugged into NATO, and still had to announce—out loud—that it isn’t for sale. The moment pressure comes from inside the club, the Western security story starts wobbling. Europe outsourced its seriousness decades ago, then convinced itself conferences and communiqués were a substitute for capability. The Arctic doesn’t care about talking points.

Mercosur
Then Brussels turns to the budget and does what it always does when it wants money: it raids the countryside. The Mercosur deal lands like a boot on the neck of European farming, while the Commission tries to repackage the damage as “competitiveness”. 

The Hungary “Pause”

And in Hungary, the mask slips entirely—files “frozen” before an election so the Commission doesn’t accidentally look neutral. It’s not rule-of-law enforcement. It’s political choreography. And it’s exactly why more Europeans are starting to see the EU not as a guardian of democracy, but as a manager of outcomes.