University of Montana panel: European political upheaval is weakening post‑World War II order, speaker says

Professor Michael Mayer, a retired University of Montana professor of U.S. foreign policy, told an audience at the Central and Southwest Asian Studies Conference that a series of political, economic and energy crises has produced what he called "a disintegration of the post World War 2 liberal order." Mayer said those strains have contributed to an uneven European response to Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine and complicated U.S. diplomatic options.

Mayer, speaking June 2025 at the University of Montana in Missoula, framed the recent years as a moment in which "corrosive issues" such as stagnant economies, immigration and energy policy have battered Western institutions and made timely military assistance more difficult. "Western Europe over decades has chronically underspent on…