How Does Europe See the
New ‘Donroe’ Doctrine?

Ask Italy

From "lord of the hemisphere" to "Pirate of the Seven Seas":
two story lines dominate the Italian media's reading of
Trump's new Donroe Doctrine.

by PAOLO PONTONIERE

Italy has recently surpassed Japan to become the world's 4th-largest economy. The surpass comes with an increased Italian influence on the international stage, particularly in Europe--where the country is one of the staunchest allies of the United States, and particularly in the aftermath of the invasion of Venezuela and Trump's claims against Greenland, since often Italy is the linchpin of European positions toward the United States. It is not surprising, then, that international observers are looking at this surging continental power to discern the direction Europe will take during this crisis that threatens the very existence of NATO. 

 

Italian media's reactions to Washington's January 3 operation in Venezuela and the renewed push to "get" Greenland appear to be unequivocally convergent. Italian observers believe that the two acts are not just the mere expression of a new gunboat diplomacy making inroads in international relations, but also two chapters in the broader vision of the global chessboard and the future of NATO embraced by the Trump Administration.

 

"Maduro's arrest is the first real example of the new regional foreign-policy strategy promoted by Trump … now they call it the Donroe doctrine," writes Fernanda Gonzalez in Wired Italia, adding that "the recurring threats … and Trump's latest incendiary statements … lead several analysts to believe that this approach could soon be extended to other territories, from Latin America to the Caribbean and even Greenland."

 

In this narrative a president that privileges speed, force, and threat-leveraging over multilateral processes, pokes the boundaries of what allies will tolerate intentioned to break Europe and force it to cow to US' demands and the dictates of like-minded autocrats, legitimizing de facto the rise of a new international of tyranny which not only validates Trump's own Donroe Doctrine but allows it to extend beyond the limits of the US hemisphere. 

 

"The 'Donroe doctrine,' articulated by Trump, corresponds perfectly to the principles of Putin's Russkij Mir (Russian World)…" writes Stefano Caprio in Asianews.it, "both the U.S. and Russia view countries within their spheres of influence as ones to control, conquer, invade, and exploit."

 

Venezuela: legality, deterrence, loyalty, and the oil question

 

"From Venezuela to Greenland... the 'Donroe' Doctrine marks a watershed for the international order and presents Europe with a dilemma: adapt to American hegemony or prepare to counter it," writes Paolo Gnes in ISPIONline, for Italy's Istituto per gli Studi di Politica Internazionale.

 

Mainstream Italian media did not dial into Trump's narcotic narrative. Editors read the action in Caracas as much as a unilateral military raid —destabilizing and legally ambiguous —as an intentional deterrent signal—meant for other capitals, both in the Americas and in Europe and over the Pacific.  Mainstream outlets immediately focused on the scale and shock-and-awe value of the operation: "Caracas hit; Maduro captured and removed," wrote ilDifforme.it, while others, like Wied.it, highlighted the rapid escalation in rhetoric.

 

From there, the commentary split along the usual Italian editorial lines. Centrist media like La Stampa and other institutional voices like RaiNews highlighted the diplomatic fallout: the precedent for sovereignty, the risk of tit-for-tat unilateralism, and the pressure placed on European governments to react without appearing either anti-American or complicit. 

 

Meanwhile, Catholic and other ethics-driven media, such as the Vatican News and the periodical Famiglia Cristiana, lean hard on the "rules-based order" approach. The raid on these outlets is another step in a long-running erosion of U.N.-centered legitimacy. This argument resonates strongly in Italian foreign-policy culture, which often equates stability with respect for procedural traditions.

 

A third layer of interpretation—present mainly in the center-left press offered the idea that "energy dominance" and coercive economic control are not side effects of the January 3 action, but policy tools.  The daily L'Unità underscored how oil shapes the US's broader strategy. Reporting on  the seizure in international waters of the Russian-flagged tanker Marinera, it noted "The embargo on Venezuelan oil… remains in force worldwide." 

 

Greenland: from old eccentricity to credible threat

 

Italian media remember the 2019 "buy Greenland" episode as a geopolitical curiosity. What changed in the 2026 framing is credibility. Drawing on translated Reuters/AP reporting, Italian media stressed that the Greenland issue was far more than Trumpian theatre, becoming a live stress test for NATO's moral logic. As Internazionale noted, "Meloni said it was 'clear to everyone' that any US move on Greenland would have a significant impact on NATO…"— signaling that even Italy's government saw threats to a NATO ally's territory as a potential rupture in allied cohesion. Even outlets that hedge on the likelihood of forceful response highlight the Danish Prime Minister's warning that an attack would mean "the end of NATO," and they amplify the unusually direct European pushback. 

 

Italian reporters such as Viviana Mazza of  Milan daily Corriere della Sera treat the Greenland story as something more than a binary "invade/don't invade," the most widely shared Italian editorials attempt to separate three possibilities: purchase, coercive control (via defense arrangements and political pressure), or outright annexation rhetoric, noting how the language of "need" slides into language of entitlement. 

 

For its part, Rome's left-leaning daily Il Manifesto frames Greenland as part of an "imperial" outreach in which territory, resources, and alliances are treated as transactional assets. 

"The Danish secret services had denounced, last August, the presence of "American infiltrators in Greenlandic society to encourage the birth of a secessionist movement," reported the Il Manifesto at beginning of 2026. According to the newspaper's editors, Pele Broberg, leader of Greenland's opposition, who had urged the island's prime minister to initiate "direct" contacts with the United States and to work for independence would be the ringleader of this effort. "His party could be the Trojan horse of the United States by calling for a referendum for secession and thus open up to the stars and stripes protectorate in the Arctic," concluded Il Manifesto, this for the daily means that instead of by outright military intervention, the US could annex the island through a mix of soft and hard power.

 

NATO appears to be an alliance continually re-priced. 

Since the invasion of Venezuela, Italian reporting about the future of NATO, rather than centering around increasing defense spending and the need to prevent US decoupling, has added a domestic-European layer: Rome's balancing act emphasizing Italy's attempt to act as "bridge" with Washington—supporting allied unity while avoiding a public rupture with Trump. This is especially visible in the coordinated European statement defending Greenland's sovereignty. Italian media read this not as symbolism but as damage control: if Greenland becomes a prolonged confrontation, the cost is paid in NATO cohesion, Ukraine policy bandwidth, and Europe's ability to present a single front.

 

In social media: Pirates at the horizon.

 

"We're well beyond the time of the Pirates of the Caribbean," says Vincenzo Sparagna, publisher of Frigolandia, "Make room, Jack Sparrow, it's time for Donald Trump, the pirate of the seven seas. The perfect Hollywood epic."

 

Though an allegorical reference, Sparagna's zinger well reflects the sentiments of Italian social media users, who, in the aftermath of Caracas and the attacks on Greenland, have converged to denounce the predatory character of Trump's foreign policy.

— PP