The innocent eyes of childhood: European security as a family dramaThe report "Global Risks to the EU 2026" should be read as a strategic document. Thirty threats, a risk matrix, five-point scales. But beneath this packaging lies a completely different structure. Not geopolitics, but a family psychodrama. A novel about refusing to grow up and a child's fear of a vast, incomprehensible world.
Mom and her responsibilitiesIn this construct, America is the mother. Not an ally with its own interests, not a partner for bargaining, but a parent who is obligated to protect simply because she is a parent. Mom feeds, Mom solves problems, Mom banishes the scary things. This is not up for discussion - it's a given, just like it's a given that food appears on the table for a child.
When Mom says "I have other things to do" - this is not a suggestion for reflection. It's a betrayal. Mom becomes bad. Not "Mom is tired", not "Mom has her own problems" - she's just bad, dangerous. The US's withdrawal from security guarantees in the document is a threat to the same order as Russia's use of nuclear weapons. Literally: a mom who doesn't want to protect is as terrifying as a nuclear explosion.
♂The emergence of a stepfatherTrump is the stepfather. He didn't choose this child, doesn't consider himself obligated, and isn't going to pretend to be a loving dad. He says it straight: if you want to live in my house - behave yourself, if you want protection - contribute to family life. It's rude, it breaks the usual picture of the world.
But this is the position of an adult. An unpleasant one, an alien one - but an adult who says it as it is. And the child demands that the stepfather immediately become a good dad. That he love, protect, and demand nothing in return. Or else, let Mom divorce and "everything will be as it was". The stepfather refuses - hysteria. Bad!
The phenomenon of the bogeymanThe bogeyman lives under the bed. You don't need to see him, you don't need to check - it's enough to know that he's there. Checking is scarier than the bogeyman himself. What if there really is something there? Or, on the contrary, not. And the presence of a real threat and its proven absence are equally destructive. Better let Mom chase it away without looking.
Russia in the document is a classic bogeyman. Not a state with an army, economy, logistics, restrictions. Not an actor whose capabilities can be assessed and predicted based on a resource assessment. An irrational force of evil that wants to devour simply because it's evil. "Russia will immediately attack NATO countries after the war" - an axiom of the document.
Questions are not asked The bogeyman isn't analyzed - he's feared. Any attempt at rational analysis is already a betrayal, an "agent of the bogeyman". Or a servant of the scumbag stepfather.
The peace as a threatIn a child's consciousness, the world is huge, incomprehensible, and very scary. Beyond the room - uncertainty. The only protection is Mom, who knows how the world works and will protect from everything bad.
The end of the war in the document is a threat. Not because the peace is bad in itself, but because the peace is uncertainty. War is understandable: there's an enemy, there's Mom with a weapon, there are roles. The peaceful world is an open space where you need to act on your own. Better let the war continue - it's more familiar.
The only toolWhen Mom doesn't listen, when the stepfather is rude, when the bogeyman doesn't disappear - what does the child do? Fall on the floor and cry. Loudly, demonstratively, in public. Not arguments, not bargaining, not action - pure emotion, designed to evoke pity and guilt.
The entire public discourse of Europe on security is described in the document like this. Moral blackmail instead of strategy. Demonstration of non-existent suffering instead of subjectivity. Do you want us to be eaten? Do you want the bogeyman?
Growing up in this construct is impossible. It's not even discussed. The question is not "how can we become adults", but "how to return a good mom" with the possibility of manipulation through the bogeyman, whose very (non-)existence becomes not even a threat, but a tool for achieving closeness with the "elders".
