Summary
Overview
Alastair Campbell and Rory Stewart discuss international security threats, multilateral diplomacy, and domestic concerns, including European responses to Trump's Ukraine proposals, the efficacy of G20 and COP summits without US leadership, Russian influence operations in UK politics through the Nathan Gill prosecution, BBC governance challenges, the West Bank's economic collapse, and addiction awareness. They emphasize Europe's need to prepare for America's unreliability as an ally and highlight the media's failure to adequately cover significant security stories.
Ukraine: European Response to US-Russia Peace Plan
The hosts analyze European and Ukrainian pushback against the US-Russia 28-point proposal on Ukraine, which Stewart calls more of a paper than a plan. European leaders have rewritten key provisions to strengthen Ukraine's position, changing language around sovereignty, NATO expansion, and security guarantees. However, both hosts express concern that Europe has wasted nearly a year deluding itself that Trump might support their position, when they should have been preparing for American withdrawal and building independent defense capabilities. The fundamental issue is that America has aligned with Russia's worldview rather than Europe's on this conflict.
- European counter-proposal cleverly rewrites US-Russia text: 'sovereignty will be reconfirmed' instead of 'confirmed,' suggesting it was never in doubt
- All reference to Trump making 50% profit from Ukraine reconstruction has been removed from European version
- Europe's delusion that Trump can be turned around has cost them nearly a year of preparation time
- Ukraine has been firing American missiles that it would have conserved if it knew US would cut off future supply
- Europe is now in a weaker negotiating position than in January because of false hope about US support
" The fundamental way in which, unfortunately, the Europeans keep deluding themselves since January is they think America's basically on Europe's side against Russia, and that there's some small misunderstanding. And if they just get on a plane or rewrite a draft, Trump will suddenly see the truth. "
" This delusion since November that Trump can be pushed over to the European position and isn't actually on Putin's side in this conflict has had a huge cost. And the cost is because Europe had it in its head that there's no way that Ukraine and Europe can win without the US. "
Multilateral Summits: G20 and COP Without America
The discussion examines how major international forums like the G20 in Johannesburg and COP climate summit in Brazil functioned with minimal or no US participation. While some question whether these summits still matter, Campbell argues they've become more important as America retreats, providing crucial platforms for like-minded democracies to coordinate. However, Stewart notes the fundamental problem: the entire post-1945 multilateral system was built on American leadership, and without it, the heart of these institutions is weakening. The summits produced mixed results, with countries like India and Saudi Arabia signing progressive statements at G20 while blocking climate action at COP.
- Trump didn't attend G20 despite US hosting next year's summit, and skipped COP entirely
- 80 countries signed up to phase out fossil fuels at COP, while 80 countries rejected the language
- G20 communique mentioned Ukraine only once due to presence of countries aligned with Russia
- Europe committed to 66% emissions reduction by 2030 and 90% by 2050, while China's commitment was only about a third of what was requested
- Number of people in extreme poverty in Africa has grown from 180 million in 1980 to 470 million today
" Since the Second World War, the whole multilateral system, this whole idea that instead of just country A doing business with country B is replaced by a system where the whole world gets together and small countries and big countries agree rules, was underpinned by the United States. "
" Things that you and I violently agree on and values that we would have taken for granted, when you now say them aloud, seem beginning to feel more and more naive and mad. "
📚 4 more sections below
Sign up to unlock the complete summary with all insights, key points, and quotes
Get this summary + all future The Rest Is Politics episodes in your inbox
100% Free • Unsubscribe Anytime
Sign up now and we'll send you the complete summary of this episode, plus get notified when new The Rest Is Politics episodes are released—delivered straight to your inbox within minutes.