The 2025 National Security Strategy Rightly Warns Europe To Stop Civilizational Erasure

The Trump Administration’s new National Security Strategy (NSS) has raised the ire of the progressive European establishment. In the 2025 NSS, under “Promoting European Greatness”, Europe is warned of the “stark prospect of civilizational erasure” due to “migration policies that are transforming the continent and creating strife, censorship of free speech and suppression of political opposition, cratering birthrates, and loss of national identities and self-confidence.” (National Security Strategy of the United States of America)

The ultimate cause of Europe’s many problems is loss of faith; faith in the Christianity

This NSS points out that “Continental Europe has been losing share of global GDP—down from 25 percent in 1990 to 14 percent today” and that “it is far from obvious whether certain European countries will have economies and militaries strong enough to remain reliable allies. Many of these nations are currently doubling down on their present path.” These are stark warnings for what was the most powerful continent, in most respects, from at least the 1600s until the mid-1900s. The ultimate cause of Europe’s many problems is loss of faith; faith in the Christianity it spread around the world and faith in Europe’s traditional Western culture.

The United States has the right to be concerned about Europe’s civilizational erasure as a national security issue because our culture remains Western and Christian. Despite the steep decline in Christianity throughout the West, the United States still has the greatest number of Christians of any nation in the world at 230 million and the highest percentage of Christians in the West (World Population Review--Most Christian Countries)

Alexis de Tocqueville noted of America in the 1831: “There is no country on earth in which the Christian religion retains greater sway over the souls of men then in America, and there can be no greater proof of its utility and its conformity to human nature than that its influence is powerfully felt over the most enlightened and free nation of the earth.” (Christianity and Democracy: Tocqueville's Views of Religion in America)

Modern British historian, Paul Johnson, claimed in “History of the American People” that “America is a God-fearing country” and that’s the source of exceptionalism.

"America is the central column that holds up all of Western civilization"

Elon Musk recently told Brett Baier that what most keeps him up at night was the issues mentioned in the NSS about Europe. Musk claimed: "America is the central column that holds up all of Western civilization... If that column fails, it's all over……. So either we strengthen that column and make sure America is strong, and we'll be strong for a long time, or that roof's coming down," (Elon Musk reveals what keeps him up at night amid ongoing DOGE mission)

While Musk is right about the U.S. as the new central column, Europe has been the critical supporting beam. Western Civilization started in Europe, beginning with the ancient Greek City States and their unique rationalism, individualism, and Democracy. In the Fourth century, Roman Emperor Constantine made Christianity the religion of the Roman Empire which permeated throughout Roman Europe, and later to the Germanic, Celtic, and Scandinavian peoples. Christianity brought to the West “a vision of the human person as a subject of freedom, whose inherent dignity is rooted in their common relationship with God. Regardless of social status…. Another crucial concept is the development of a philosophical-theological doctrine of natural law, notably articulated by thinkers like Albert the Great and Thomas Aquinas. Moreover, Christianity has progressively emphasized the importance of recognizing and defending the ‘human rights’ of all individuals. The idea of individual rights and freedoms, which holds central importance in many Western democracies, finds its roots in Christian theology, particularly the belief in the equality of all human beings in the eyes of God.” (Western Culture, Christian Origins Of)

Though Western Civilization was influenced by secular extremes of the Enlightenment of the late 17^th and 18^th centuries, Christian values of freedom and individual rights remained the mainstay of Western Civilization. At its birth, America declared to the Western world we were “endowed by our creator with certain unalienable rights” which government was to protect. Further, that government could be changed if it became a danger to those rights. Over a century and a half later, President Franklin Roosevelt’s D-Day prayer called the invasion “a struggle to preserve our Republic, our religion, and our (western) civilization.” (Prayer on D-Day)

In 1949, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which included the United States, Canada and Western Europe, came together in the common ground of the West facing the enemy of communism of the Soviet Union. The preamble to the NATO Charter reads in part “(NATO nations) are determined to safeguard the freedom, common heritage and civilization of their peoples, founded on the principles of democracy, individual liberty and the rule of law. The NATO Alliance was built upon the “common heritage and civilization” of Western Judeo-Christian culture. Europe is now undergoing a demographic upheaval with the plummeting birthrates and skyrocketing immigration from non-Western, particularly Muslim countries. If European nations become Islamic, we will no longer hold a common heritage and civilization needed as the basis of an alliance.

Many current progressive European leaders were shocked about the Trump NSS warnings of “civilizational erasure”. The truth hurts. Conservative Europeans, particularly military officers, acknowledge the need for Europe to pay heed and turn it around. 2 Corinthians 6:14 tells us: “Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers, for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness.” Americans pray European nations can quickly rebuild their walls of Western Civilization so we can “yoke” together to defend our common heritage and civilization.

Col. Bill Connor——Bio and Archives – Col. Bill Connor is a retired U.S. Army Infantry officer, attorney, and founding partner of NATIONAL DEFENSE CONSULTANTS, LLC. While in the Army, Connor logged multiple deployments to the Middle East, and he has commanded both light Infantry and Ranger training companies. From 2007 through 2008 he was deployed to Afghanistan where he became the senior U.S. military adviser in Helmand Province. Since the start of the October 2023 war in Israel, he has provided analysis to NEWSMAX.