By Daniel DePetris
While American and Russian officials are yelling at one another in the UN Security Council chamber, another international actor has found itself at the little kids’ table: Europe.
It’s possible the phrase “little kids’ table” is too harsh. To be fair, French president Emmanuel Macron is at least in direct communication with Russian president Vladimir Putin and urging his European colleagues to formulate a joint European negotiating position on the Ukraine question. France is also a chief mediator of the Normandy Format, which seeks to resolve the eight-year conflict in Ukraine’s Donbas region.
But Macron is largely an outlier on his own continent. He’s spent his five years in the Élysée Palace lighting a Bunsen Burner underneath Europe’s feet in an attempt to jolt them into acting more assertively on security issues. Yet outside of some rhetorical support from European commissioner Ursula von der Leyen, his efforts have failed to accomplish the sovereign, independent Europe he’s been looking for.
This piece was originally published in Spectator on February 1, 2022. Read more HERE.