Whilst the European Union talks of matters such as “strategic autonomy” and idealizes itself as a unified, independent force for good in the world, the reality could not be further from the truth. Espionage revelations are just the tip of the iceberg of a variety of ways in which the United States has, through its integration with Europe’s military and security dynamic, utilized a myriad of political tactics to strongarm the bloc into following its political will and agenda, even when it is apathetic or openly objects to it.
Does this count as inter imperialist conflict? Because I don’t understand why the US would think it needs to do this. Also why the Danish intelligence helped them with it.
The EU and NATO basically exist as tools that help the US to exercise control over Europe. This spying is just a normal part of that control. And I dont think it can be considered as inter-imperialist conflict, because Europe is not independent from the US (just look how many military bases they have here).
Its a good question, because occasionally the US does clamp down on its vassal states ( this numeves video on How the US dominates tech shows a few cases of the US doing this against France and Japan with certain industries ) . You could call it conflict, but considering they aren’t anywhere close to peer competitors ( especially militarily ), and since the capitalists of these countries mostly have the same goals of imperialist wealth extraction from low wage global south workers, its not much of a conflict. Maybe like the head of a crime family keeping an eye on what all the little bosses are doing.