Faced with the shameless aggression of American power, the European Union must, together with the middle powers and above all with the African continent, create a new axis of non-alignment. This is what the founder of the "Circle for a Geopolitical Europe" Léonard Lifar argues in an article for the French newspaper L'Express.
The Davos Forum in 2026 will remain a symbol of the end of an era that it helped to build: that of the globalized homo economicus, this now anachronistic "man of Davos". For thirty years, Europeans believed that the world could be governed by neutral rules and transnational experts within a global technocracy.
But what we are experiencing is not simply the disappearance of expert knowledge; it is a "genetic mutation", in the words of historian Lorenzo Castellani: the end of universal technocracy in favor of the rise of imperial technocracy.
This dream of technical management of world affairs is collapsing in the face of the brutal return of politics, where the technocratic instrument no longer serves to harmonize exchange but to serve the power of a dominant empire. We are moving from a world in which rules should precede power to a world in which power openly dictates the rules, transforming technical expertise into a mere instrument for the hegemonic affirmation of states.
This shift makes obsolete the approach that sees connectivity and flows as guarantees of stability. Today, the infrastructures that connect us (digital networks, undersea cables or payment systems) have become instruments of permanent hostility. This is what Mark Galeotti calls the "arsenalization of everything": in an interconnected world, every connection is a potential vulnerability. Our infrastructures are now turned against us.
The need for a double retreat
Faced with American techno-imperialism, anxiety is already palpable at the highest levels of the European Union. Under the pressure of the new doctrine of limited sovereignty imposed by Washington, NATO risks transforming into a modern version of the Warsaw Pact, to which Europe would be the main subordinate.
The sudden departure of Christine Lagarde at a state dinner in Davos, provoked by the aggressive remarks of a senior American official, and the refusal of Belgian Prime Minister Bart de Wever to acknowledge the fate of a "humiliated slave" illustrate the ongoing rift.
According to the latest European opinion poll, an absolute majority (51%) consider Donald Trump to be an "enemy" of Europe. Therefore, risk mitigation must no longer be a simple defensive reaction against China, but a deliberate act of independence, applied with equal rigor to both giants. Washington and Beijing, albeit in different guises, follow the same logic: turning interdependence into a lever for coercion.
The rejection of cooperation with the American ally in energy, finance, and data management has become as vital as breaking China’s monopoly on critical metals and transitional technologies.
Multilateralism and the African Turn
While the temptation of an amoral diplomatic framework may be attractive to some middle powers, retreating solely to national interests is a trap. Without a system of minimal rules, autonomy of action is simply an illusion that vanishes in the face of the brute force and coercive power of great powers. Europe's role must be to build a new axis of non-alignment, whose strength lies in its adherence to a renewed liberal order, reliable because it is protected by a pole of autonomous power, from Brazil to Indonesia, and interested in respecting the sovereignty of each nation, without the hypocrisy of the previous era.
This rethinking of multilateralism finds its natural continuation in a pragmatic partnership with Africa. Most African and European governments are committed to multilateralism, convinced that this system remains the best protection against the arbitrary actions of the great powers.
Today, Europe suffers from the imposition of high ESG standards (ed. note: environmental, social and governance criteria) and bureaucracy, which slows down the implementation of major infrastructure projects, hindering genuine partnerships for co-creation. By aligning our strategies, we must redirect critical resources directly to African soil, promoting shared technological progress.
This ambition is based on unprecedented human capital, because by 2030, more than 40% of the world's youth will be African, becoming the future engine of innovation and global consumer markets. By facilitating the mobilization of domestic capital and reducing the risk of strategic investments, the European Union can build an axis of stability capable of resisting global fragmentation. By embracing this sharing of power and values, Europe will no longer be content with regulations alone.
It will become the architect of a multipolar order, where the rule of law will finally protect peoples from the greed of empires. The choice is now clear: to persist in normative submission, condemning itself to oblivion, or to suffer a loss of power and once again become the architect of the free world.