In the Paris sunshine on Thursday, French president Emanuel Macron sought to redress that balance as he hosted leaders from across Europe for a summit on the ongoing need to support Ukraine and place the continent which has had to bear the brunt of the fallout from Russia's invasion of Ukraine more centrally.

It is a point often repeated in Irish media, but across the continent there is a different feeling on the Russian invasion of Ukraine than there is in Ireland. 

That is understandable given our size and geography, but the conversations in recent weeks around European rearmament should serve to underline where European leaders are on this issue: There is a growing and palpable fear that Russia will not stop at Ukraine.

What that requires, many of the EU's leaders have decided, is a period spent ramping up defences and  ploughing money into scaling up armies and systems which stagnated or stalled at the death of the Cold War.

At the centre of much of this has been Mr Macron, who has seemingly looked to position himself and his country as the moral guardian of a continent facing the latest in a long line of existential questions

In recent months, he has gathered European leaders on a number of occasions, has visited London, and even gone to Washington — where he held his own alongside the man perhaps most responsible for the Frenchman's new-found urgency, Donald Trump.

Mr Macron and many others in Europe have made a calculation or come to a realisation: The old world, in which the US could be relied upon as a deterrent or a protector or anything really, is no more.

No more rulebook

Mr Trump's singular focus on his own country and his lack of appreciation for a multilateral world, means that the rulebook has been torn up, thrown out, and banned from the library. 

We are charting a new course and Mr Macron looks from a distance like a man who fancies himself at the wheel of the ship.

If Europe can no longer look to the US and with Britain out of the EU, albeit making attempts to be a much better neighbour under Keir Starmer, it will need a key player. 

The type of thing that Angela Merkel used to do is now either being thrust upon or seized by Mr Macron, depending on your viewpoint.

Alongside Mr Starmer, Mr Macron has been the closest ally that Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has had in many ways. The pair's warm welcome of the Ukrainian was probably appreciated after his bruising encounter with Mr Trump.

Aside from the mercurial man in the Oval Office, the European context has changed with Britain out, Germany's next chancellor Friedrich Merz still attempting to form a government, and Italy's Giorgia Meloni —  while still supporting Ukraine — considered more ideologically aligned with Mr Trump. 

Added to this is America's openly ambivalent or even hostile attitude towards the continent. 

Disdain for Europe

The contents of a group messaging chat to which a journalist was accidentally added show the disdain which some in the upper echelons of the Trump administration hold Europe. 

There is a vacuum there for Mr Macron to fill, and his notion that Europe prepares a force aimed at dissuading Russia from a repeat invasion is one which has began to gain traction.

All of which is even more curious when stacked up against Mr Macron's domestic affairs.

Mr Macron survived a snap election due to voters who were willing to cast their ballot for him "with gloves on" to ward off the far right Marine Le Pen.

Mr Macron, like many leaders, seems to be more lauded on the global stage than the local

At the gathering, Mr Macron said there was no unanimity on his plans — but added that this was not needed because a plan that was once seen as outlandish, the idea of a European force in Ukraine, has become a matter of not if but when peace is found.

Mr Macron had floated the idea last year and was widely seen to have only succeeded in illustrating the faultlines across the continent, annoying European allies by suggesting such a thing. Now, it seems, that many European countries are in the "coalition of the willing".

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen offered her take on the day's meeting, saying the “coalition of the willing” got “bigger, stronger, and very determined".

How willing European partners are to row in behind Mr Macron could decide just how big and how strong it can be.