Europe’s Ukraine strategy can be summed up as manifesting. The belief that mind can conquer matter is idealism at its most pathological. These people genuinely seem to think that chanting “values” louder will bend reality to their will. Like Instagram gurus insisting “visualize wealth and it shall be yours,” EU summits have devolved into groupthink seances where leaders recite mantras of Russian defeat and Ukrainian victory, as though repetition alone could conjure artillery shells or resurrect their gutted industries. This is magical thinking masquerading as policy. Even as factories shutter and energy prices eviscerate living standards, Europe clings to the delusion that their sanctions will magically cripple a resource-rich Russia now buoyed by China and the Global South. Yet, no amount of positive vibes can offset the laws of supply chains, demographics, or artillery parity. Russia, meanwhile, operates firmly in the realm of materialist thinking. They are methodically attriting the Ukrainian army, expanding industries, and adapting to sanctions. Europe’s tragedy isn’t just its refusal to accept defeat, but its quasi-religious insistence that reality must bend to its sermons. In the end, no amount of neoliberal manifesting can magic the material world away.
Personally, I don’t even think it’s that sophisticated. The EU is basically just going to make a slush fund for military spending, that they plan to fund by cutting social services. A bunch of people are going to make money hand over fist in the process. We already saw this play out just recently with the EU plan to acquire 1.5 million artillery shells. A bunch of money was poured into that with a lot of fanfare, and in the end they managed to cobble up around a third of that as I recall. I expect that the new scheme to militarize Europe will play out exactly the same way.