It is not a European shame that the EU is not a respectable global ‘warrior’

How many times have I read in the media these days, both in Croatian and European outlets, that Europe is shamed, weak, almost nonexistent? Many times. So many that I fear even artificial intelligence cannot keep track of them all. Europe has been marginalized in attempts at the Russian-Ukrainian peace process, it is irrelevant in seeking solutions to the Middle Eastern conflict; unknown, allegedly Russian, drones are not only flying over Polish and Romanian territory, they have also begun to circle (for now) over Danish and Norwegian airports; Russian fighters are intruding into the airspace of the Baltic NATO members; the Spanish Minister of Defense’s aircraft is losing internet connections in the air corridor over Russia… And then there is American President Trump delivering a brutal lesson to European leaders from the UN podium in New York about how they are irreversibly destroying their countries with unsustainable migration and green energy policies.

Already Seen

But I have already read almost identical laments about a shamed and defensively defeated Europe. Moreover, I have listened to them live. It was thirty years ago when, under American leadership, the war in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina ended with the signing of the Dayton and earlier Erdut agreements. According to Western European media, Europe was allegedly shamed and humiliated then as well, allowing Americans to impose Pax Americana on its own continent. I remember how the announcement that a peace agreement had been reached in Dayton was met with a day of mourning among my European correspondent colleagues at the UN in Geneva – where the International Conference on the Former Yugoslavia had been seated for three years, compromised and ineffective, as any peace manager can be, a hybrid between the EU and the UN.

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In that mourning over a humiliated and shamed Europe, it was not problematic that Europe (EC/EU) was unable to prevent or stop the (great) Serbian aggressive war in Croatia and then in Bosnia and Herzegovina, it was not a problem that in collusion with an even worse UN, it was working distinctly in favor of the Greater Serbian project by freezing its war-acquired advantage. The problem was – that America imposed peace. French colleagues found this particularly tragic. From a Croatian perspective, of course, that Pax Americana was wonderful, with all its compromises and shortcomings.

The problem for me was the ineffective European-UN peace initiatives that, in fact, allowed Serbia to consolidate its project, the problem was the British-French rapid reaction forces whose priority was to stop ‘Operation Storm’, not to prevent genocide in Srebrenica, for which they had both the mandate and resources. The problem for me was the British-French determination to stop the peace initiative (then Clinton’s) of America after all their initiatives had failed. And I did not have the impression that Europe was defeated and shamed (only) in Dayton. Just as I do not have the impression today that Europe is seriously shamed and humiliated in the Russian-Ukrainian and Middle Eastern peace processes. These are simply not disciplines in which Europe can play leading roles.

Shame is something else

After all, when was Europe a respectable security-defense power that it could be shamed for no longer being one? Was it perhaps in World War II, which began as a European conflict? And had the US not intervened, Stalin’s Red Army would have reached at least the English Channel, not just the Elbe and Berlin. Perhaps in World War I, which also began as a European conflict, and ended only with the assistance of the US? The EC/EU was not created to be a European defense shield, let alone to be a regional or even global peace manager, but to prevent European states from fighting each other again through the development of economic and political cooperation, to avoid provoking a third world war. For defense and security, there is NATO, in which American leadership is unquestionable, and greater European engagement is necessary.

How long would the EU take to agree on the answer to the question of whether Europeans should shoot down unidentified flying objects in their airspace? For American President Trump, it takes a few seconds, as long as it takes him to say: – Yes, they should do it.

And those who send ‘objects’ are aware of this. And those over whom the objects fly (Poland, Romania) know well the difference between empty promises and actions. Just as we did thirty years ago. But it is not a European shame that the EU is not a respectable global ‘warrior’. It is not in its founding DNA. The shame is that poor policies have brought the European project to the brink of economic and demographic sustainability and internal stability. And that Donald Trump has to tell us this. And it is not fake news.