Under the banner of autonomy, European elites are normalizing nuclear brinkmanship, the politics of fear, and blind Russophobia There is something deeply unsettling in the tone of the EU’s current strategic debate. What is presented as prudence increasingly resembles panic. What is framed as ‘strategic autonomy’ often sounds like something else entirely: A loss of confidence, a surge of ideological hostility, and a willingness – among declining liberal elites – to flirt with the most destructive weapons ever created. A continent losing its nerve – and its judgment At the center of this shift stands a revived obsession with nuclear deterrence. France, Germany, and Poland are now openly discussing deeper engagement with nuclear strategy, invoking the usual talking points of deterrence and security. But beneath that lies a far more troubling dynamic: A growing fixation on Russia as an existential enemy and a readiness to escalate rather than de-escalate.…