WORLD ROUNDUPPutin’s Already Won | Trump’s NSS: A Blueprint for the Demise of the West | The Muslim Brotherhood Still Isn’t a Terrorist Organization, and more

Trump’s National Security Strategy Is a Blueprint for the Demise of the West  (Howard W. French, Foreign Policy)
The White House’s agenda may not be coherent, but it is deeply dangerous.

Trump Isn’t Interested in Fighting a New Cold War. He Wants a New Civilizational War.  (Thomas L. Friedman, New York Times)
The administration’s new strategy paper warns that unless our European allies elect more “patriotic” nationalist parties, committed to stemming immigration, Europe will face “civilizational erasure.” Unstated but implied is that we will judge you not by the quality of your democracy but by the stringency by which you stem the migration flow from Muslim countries to Europe’s south.
It is language unlike any previous U.S. national security survey, and to my mind it reveals a deep truth about this second Trump administration: how much it came to Washington to fight America’s third civil war, not to fight the West’s new cold war.
In other words, when protecting “Western civilization” — with a focus on race and faith — become the centerpiece of U.S. national security, the biggest threat becomes uncontrolled immigration into America and Western Europe — not Russia or China. And “protecting American culture, ‘spiritual health’ and ‘traditional families’ are framed as core national security requirements,” as the defense analyst Rick Landgraf pointed out on the defense website “War on the Rocks.”
And that’s why the Trump National Security Strategy paper is no accident or the work of a few low-level ideologues. It is, in fact, the Rosetta Stone explaining what really animates this administration at home and abroad.

Can Anyone Stop Europe’s Populist Right?  (Economist)
Apocalyptic warnings by mainstream politicians are doomed to fail.

Putin’s Already Won  (Michael Hirsh, Foreign Policy)
He’s exposed fatal divisions in the “West” even as Russians still back his Ukraine invasion.

Ukraine Struggles to Cope with America’s Destructive Peace Plans  (Economist)
The latest maneuvers by Donald Trump are familiar.

The Muslim Brotherhood Still Isn’t a Terrorist Organization  (Marc Lynch, Foreign Policy)
Naming it one will only bolster repression in the Middle East and the United States.

Nvidia Selling Chips to China Shows Incoherence of Trump Trade Policy  (Editorial Board, Washington Post)
The president reveals the hollowness of his other “national security” concerns.