It was a week that shook the world. The spilled Ukrainian blood counted for nothing as Donald Trump openly sided with Russia to achieve a peace that can only reward it for its unilateral aggression. As profoundly, the US president has launched a new era in which might is right, “strong” men carve up the globe, and international law and multilateral institutions are eviscerated. Nor, as the former head of MI6 Alex Younger told BBC’s Newsnight, is there any going back.
Britain may be only a middle-ranking power but, given the politics and defence capacity of the rest of Europe, it now has a special responsibility – in its own interests as much as Europe’s – to take a lead in creating a functioning order to replace the old. Andto do its very best to secure a just peace in Ukraine. For all its modest standing, Britain still retains important political and strategic assets. They must be deployed.
