When crisis strikes, we divide, and division breeds inaction. This is the assumption generally made about Europe’s place in the world. But a look at events in the Middle East – past and present – suggests that this is not always the case. Europe is more paralysed than divided over the illegal US-Israeli war on Iran. Yet rather than fostering a shared sense of purpose, this crisis is hollowing out Europe’s identity and undermining its ability to act independently in the world.
Rewind to 2003. The Iraq war was the quintessence of European division. France and Germany vehemently opposed the US-led invasion. Paris sought to block Washington’s unilateral action in the UN security council by rallying a passionate defence of multilateralism and the rule of international law. The UK, Italy and Spain, by contrast, backed the US attack, participating to varying degrees. Europe was divided at its core – and beyond. That year, the EU stood on the brink of enlarging to admit central and eastern Europe. Most of those former communist bloc countries supported the US, less out of conviction about Washington’s case for war than because they saw the US as their path to freedom and future security. The then-US defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, infamously divided the continent, taunting “old” Europe with the support Washington was receiving from “new” Europe. The Iraq war created a three-layered fault line: within core Europe, between “old” and “new” Europe, and across the Atlantic.
