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Commentary
Wall Street Journal

Macron’s Faux Pas on Nationalism

Western Europe mistakes its lessons from World War I for universal truths.

walter_russell_mead
walter_russell_mead
Ravenel B. Curry III Distinguished Fellow in Strategy and Statesmanship
French President Emmanuel Macron Speaks to German Chancellor Angela Merkel as they sit next to US President Donald Trump and US First Lady Melania Trump in Paris on November 11, 2018 (Photo credit: FRANCOIS MORI/AFP/Getty Images)
Caption
French President Emmanuel Macron Speaks to German Chancellor Angela Merkel as they sit next to US President Donald Trump and US First Lady Melania Trump in Paris on November 11, 2018 (Photo credit: FRANCOIS MORI/AFP/Getty Images)

Can the trans-Atlantic relationship be saved? That’s the question the world faces 100 years after the end of World War I.

The signs from the centennial commemorations in Paris were not good. French President Emmanuel Macron publicly condemned nationalism as “the opposite of patriotism” as self-proclaimed nationalist Donald Trump looked on stonily. The relationship between the U.S. and its three principal European allies—Germany, Britain and France—is arguably cooler than at any time since the Truman administration.

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