For more than a century, the United States has served as the primary guarantor of European security. American power helped save Europe in two world wars, deter Soviet expansion during the Cold War, sustain NATO and lead the fight against jihadist terrorism after the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.
Yet when Washington finally confronted the Iranian regime directly during “Operation Epic Fury,” much of Europe responded not with urgency or resolve but with hesitation, strategic paralysis and outright obstruction.Europe’s response to the war exposed not only strategic weakness, but also a broader crisis of political will and moral clarity across much of the continent.
Some European leaders justified their refusal to support the operation by insisting that “this is not our war” or by criticizing Washington for not consulting them sufficiently beforehand. Yet after years of hesitation and obstruction over Iran, it’s fair to ask why the United States would risk sharing sensitive operational details with allies unwilling to support the mission in the first place.
Europe’s refusal was especially shortsighted because Iran does not threaten only America and Israel. In many respects, the Islamic Republic poses a more immediate threat to Europe than to the United States.
Iran’s military collaboration with Russia directly threatens Europe through the war in Ukraine. Disruption of the Strait of Hormuz damages Europe far more than the United States. And Iran has orchestrated terrorist attacks against European targets and on European soil for decades.
Iranian-backed terrorists murdered 58 French paratroopers in the 1983 Beirut barracks bombing. Iranian proxies supplied the explosively formed penetrators that killed and maimed coalition troops, including Europeans, during the Iraq War. Iranian operatives and proxies have been tied to assassination and terror plots across Europe for decades, from the murder of Kurdish dissidents in Berlin in 1992 to the 2018 plot to bomb a major Iranian opposition rally near Paris.
British intelligence officials have repeatedly warned about escalating Iranian activity inside the United Kingdom, including assassination and kidnapping plots targeting dissidents and Jewish communities.
And still, Europe spent decades pursuing accommodation over confrontation.
While Iran expanded its missile program, advanced toward nuclear-weapons capability, armed terrorist proxies across the region, and entrenched itself in Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and Yemen, many European governments continued to prioritize diplomacy while avoiding decisive action.
The decision by the European Union to designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization in February exposed Europe’s chronic strategic delay. The IRGC did not suddenly become a terrorist entity in 2026. It had spent decades directing proxy warfare, terrorism, assassinations, and repression across the globe.
What changed was not the nature of the IRGC, but the political cost of ignoring reality after the Iranian regime massacred an estimated 30,000 protesters during its brutal crackdown.
Then came the real test.
When the United States requested support for operations connected to the Iran campaign, several European governments refused. France, Italy and Spain denied American access to airspace or military facilities needed for Iran-related operations.
Europe also failed to take meaningful military action of its own. Despite its dependence on Gulf energy and trade, Europe has yet to take serious steps to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. When a British military base in Cyprus came under attack, it took two weeks for the United Kingdom to deploy HMS Dragon, reportedly because critical dockworkers and support staff were barred from working past 5 p.m. The episode exposed a peacetime bureaucracy so rigid that a warship could not be readied for combat outside standard office hours.
Europe’s paralysis is not only military. Despite Iran’s brutal crackdown on protesters earlier this year and its confrontation with the West during “Operation Epic Fury,” no European country has expelled Iranian ambassadors or meaningfully downgraded diplomatic relations with Tehran.
Ultimately, the war revealed a deeper crisis of strategic culture inside much of Europe: declining military readiness, political risk-aversion, and an inability to distinguish between avoiding conflict and preventing it.
A 2024 YouGov survey found that only a third of Brits under the age of 40 said they would fight for their country, even if it “was under imminent threat of invasion.” Similar trends can be seen across much of Western Europe. Contrast that with Israel after the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, when reservists flooded airports worldwide trying to return home for military service.
This is not simply a military difference. It is a civilizational one.
Europe today often struggles to defend the very values and security order that American power continues to guarantee. The continent faces rising antisemitism, growing internal polarization and mounting threats not only from Russia and Iran, but also from Islamist movements operating both outside and within Europe itself. Yet too many leaders remain constrained by short-term political calculations and the illusion that hard power can indefinitely be avoided.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently asked a fundamental question: Should the world accept a regime attempting to dominate one of the most important waterways on earth?
So far, much of Europe has failed to answer that question with clarity. And unless it rediscovers the will to defend its interests and values, its strategic decline will only accelerate.
