The Gulf Between Europe and Strategic Reality
- EU and strategic partners,
- EU strategy and foreign policy,
- Europe in the World,
- European defence / NATO,
- Middle-East / North Africa,
Why does Europe have no impact on the war in the Gulf? Nor even on the diplomatic efforts to settle the war? Europeans could have mounted a collective operation to provide defensive assistance to partner countries in the Gulf. They could have offered to assist the legitimate government of Lebanon with its air defence. They must now certainly weigh in on a durable political settlement for the region, not least by being part of the security dimension of any arrangement. Indeed, Europe’s interests may yet oblige it to deploy, even if there is no ceasefire. But between the strategic reality in the Gulf and the focus of the debate and the way decisions are made in Europe there remains – a wide gulf.
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