Your editorials on foreign policy in Europe and the increasing barbarity of Vladimir Putin’s assault were both insightful and powerful. But they failed to address the roots of this catastrophic failure of so-called diplomacy.
Principled foreign policy has long been mocked by neoliberals and politicians of all stripes in favour of “interests”. We should now understand where interest-based foreign policy has brought us. What’s more, it is hypocritical and craven. Interests were sufficient to justify and fight wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and a myriad of smaller regions, but now its hegemony has brought us Russian hubris and fatal prevarication in the face of Putin’s crystal clear intention.
