A Europe out of place

Each new war front increases the sense of chaos in the European Union. "The West as we know it no longer exists," declared Ursula von der Leyen in an interview with the German newspaper The Time Last April, the European neighborhood is in flames. The escalating conflict between Israel and Iran has escalated into open war in a matter of days, further fueling the risk of nuclear proliferation that accompanies this process of global rearmament. The situation abroad has yielded no positive results in the last thirty years. We have seen this in Afghanistan (2001), Iraq (2003), and Libya (2011). It has placed itself in the position of an incapable observer; each new episode of war serves, above all, to confirm the internal contradictions that mark European foreign policy and the decline of its regional influence. While Russia's "diplomacy will not help, only force" in Ukraine, the message from Brussels is completely opposite when it comes to the Middle East. "Lasting security is built through diplomacy, not military action," said the High Representative for European Foreign Policy, Kaja Kallas, this weekend, after meeting with the minister.

The European cacophony is evident between capitals and is also expressed in the contortions of an argument that becomes evident when comparing the EU's double standards regarding the latent conflicts in its southern and eastern neighborhoods. But while Berlin and Paris publicly call for the return of diplomacy, the United Kingdom has decided to send fighter jets to its bases in the Middle East in the face of the possibility that the situation could continue to worsen. Netanyahu when he says "that Iran should not have nuclear weapons," although he added: "Of course, I believe that a negotiated solution is, in the long term, the best solution." G-7 2018.

An EU obsessed with avoiding a break with the United States was trying to make Trump understand, once again, that a transatlantic trade war would have direct consequences for the European rearmament program. Europe. This could also force the European Central Bank to raise interest rates, which would further hamper investment and business growth. Global: commercial power. Faced with diplomatic weaknesses, the EU instead multiplies its trade agreements with half the world (Mercosur, India, New Zealand, etc.). Foreign Affairs,The two experts theorize about the "end of the long American century" with Donald Trump's renunciation of soft power and his commitment to embracing coercion as the only instrument to bolster his ability to get his way. Europe, write Nye and Keonane, could exert some counterinfluence in the commercial sector if it were not so dependent on the United States for security.

The dizzying pace of global change, and the impact of geopolitical relations marked by the exercise of hard power and confrontation, aggravate Europe's structural weaknesses and its very conception.