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By MAHMOOD SANGLAY
On February 19, 2025, Professor Jeffrey Sachs, a distinguished American economist and public intellectual, delivered a landmark address to the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium.
Invited by MEP Michael von der Schulenburg, Sachs issued a sweeping condemnation of US foreign policy, NATO expansion and the enabling silence of Europe. While his address was hailed by many as a courageous act of truth-telling, it was also a missed opportunity to address the foreign policy of Europe on Africa.
Click here to download the transcript of the address.
Sachs’s speech drew on his decades-long experience as an advisor to world leaders and his intimate knowledge of global power politics. He described the post-Cold War era not as a triumph of democracy, but as an age of American militarism, marked by regime change, NATO expansion and devastating wars in Iraq, Syria, Libya and beyond.
Sachs argued that the United States has pursued a strategy of unipolar domination since the collapse of the Soviet Union, treating neutrality as subversion, diplomacy as weakness and international law as optional. He called out successive US administrations—Clinton, Bush, Obama, Trump, and Biden—for continuing a dangerous trajectory of military interventionism. Europe, he said, has not been a co-pilot, but a complicit passenger.
His most searing comments were reserved for America’s enabling of Israeli aggression. Sachs named Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a war criminal and called on Europe to reject US vetoes at the United Nations that block Palestinian statehood. ‘There will be no peace,’ Sachs asserted, ‘without a state of Palestine on the 1967 borders.’
The truth, but not the whole truth
Sachs’s address is appreciated by those committed to truth, justice and accountability. His refusal to follow the dominant Western narrative is courageous, and his factual precision is both rare and necessary in a global media environment shaped by entrenched state interests.
To his credit, he does mention Africa once—expressing a desire for the African Union to be recognised among the world’s great powers, alongside the United States, China, Russia, India and Europe. However, this reference occurs only at the end of his address, and only in response to a question during the Q&A session. It is neither integrated into his core argument nor explored with the depth or urgency afforded to Europe, Russia or the Middle East.
This is rather surprising, given that Jeffrey Sachs has on multiple previous occasions addressed these issues on other platforms. In numerous lectures, interviews, and policy forums, he has spoken forcefully on the legacies of colonialism, the moral imperative for reparations, debt cancellation and Africa’s centrality to the global sustainable development agenda. His consistent calls for fair trade, climate justice, and African agency in international financial institutions demonstrate a strong Afro-centric understanding of global equity. Unfortunately, these themes were not incorporated into his address at the European Parliament.
In calling on Europe to reclaim its foreign policy autonomy, Sachs stops short of urging it to reckon with its colonial past. Although countries like Libya and Sudan are mentioned briefly, there is no substantive engagement with the broader African context or the continent’s enduring struggles for justice and sovereignty.
The imperative of Africa
There is an interesting segment in which Sachs contrasts Europe and the US.
This is fascinating, despite his oversight in not contextualising Africa in his analysis. If Europe is to develop an ethical and independent foreign policy—as Sachs rightly advocates—it must also honestly confront its colonial history and its continued exploitation of the Global South.
Such a policy must include recognition of historical crimes, including slavery, colonialism and the resulting economic underdevelopment. Reparations and the cancellation of illegitimate debt must be understood as matters of justice, not acts of charity. Climate justice is essential, particularly through the acknowledgment of ‘climate debt’ and Europe’s obligation to support African nations in adapting to climate change and transitioning to sustainable economies.
Fairtrade practices, equitable technological partnerships, and support for African-led development initiatives must be prioritised. Migration policy must shift from border fortification to addressing root causes such as poverty, conflict and inequality. Equally, Islamophobia—including discriminatory immigration laws and hijab bans within the EU—must be challenged as systemic injustices, not reduced to cultural peculiarities.
To call for European sovereignty without demanding European accountability is, at best, an incomplete project—and at worst, a perpetuation of the very injustices it seeks to correct.
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Sachs on Empire and Israel
Some remarks in his address that merit quotation include a few explosive segments:
‘This was a war carried out for Israel… Netanyahu’s idea was there will be one state, it will be Israel, and anyone that objects—we will overthrow.’
‘The US handed over Middle East foreign policy to Netanyahu thirty years ago.’
‘To be a friend of the United States is fatal.’
‘And don’t beg to be at the table with the United States. You don’t need to be in the room with the United States.’
The British still believe they run the world. It’s amazing what nostalgia means. They don’t even stop. It’s almost like a Monty Python skit actually.
The above quotes from Sachs’s address are not rhetorical flourishes. They are grounded in evidence such as Clean Break, a policy document prepared in 1996 by a study group led by Richard Perle for Netanyahu. They are also grounded in leaked conversations and public statements from US senators reducing the Ukraine war to a cost-effective proxy conflict. Sachs’s warnings about the Israel lobby’s grip on Washington are especially significant for readers who have long witnessed the subjugation of Palestinian rights to American-Israeli interests.
His call for diplomacy with Russia and China—not confrontation—was refreshing in its realism. His suggestion that Trump may end the Ukraine war not out of morality, but out of calculation, rings plausible.
The Global South: beyond geography
When Sachs declares, ‘I don’t believe in the Global South… the Global South is mostly in the North,’ he risks trivialising a crucial political category. While his critique of the geographical imprecision of such terms is valid, he overlooks their historical and political value.
Sachs says he does not ‘know what this is about’. Well, the ‘Global South’ is not merely a place. It is a legacy of colonisation, a reflection of enduring economic injustice and a coalition of voices demanding a just world order. We should refine—not reject—these frameworks. The Global South remains a vital lens through which power and inequality are understood.
Sachs has done what few in the West have dared to do: expose the brutal continuity of American imperialism and challenge Europe to introspect. His critique of Israel’s influence and his support for Palestinian self-determination are timely and courageous. And his vision of a ‘true age of abundance’ for our planet inspires hope.
But Sachs also reminds us that even the most progressive critics of empire are subject to scrutiny. Africa must be key in the struggle for global justice. Any vision of peace, development or international order that excludes the continent is flawed.
