Saturday, March 19, 2011

Common Foreign Policy goes AWOL again

So, we have France in the lead with Britain and the United States following. Of course, there is the curious problem of why it took President Obama so long to decide to do anything and the secondary question of who is in charge on the other side of the Pond. Roger Simon deals with those points on Pajamas Media.

A more interesting question for us is where, oh where is the Common Foreign Policy a.k.a. European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP). Where is the wondrous Baroness Ashton? Why is Europe not speaking with one voice but leaving the problem in that shocking traditional way to individual countries to deal with?

Well you may ask. It seems that the act was not got together again. This time, the fault lies with Germany (France having some traditional interests in North Africa). Germany was one of the abstentions in the UN Security Council and was, indeed, at fault in dragging out the whole process at the UN. Here is an explanation as to why this might have happened with heavy emphasis on internal party politics.

Der Spiegel thinks this could damage Germany's international reputation. And we thought the day of those national problems and competitions has gone.
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4 comments:

  1. Edward SpaltonMarch 20, 2011 at 2:37 PM

    Is this not due to the informal but firmly rooted concept that Eastern Europe and the Balkans is the field for Germany's Drang nach Osten and the French can be indulged by winking at their aspirations for a similar sphere of influence, a "Mediterranean Union" , including large territories of the former French empire?

    Whether engaged in the Balkans or North Africa, British forces will be the servants of one or other concept. Either way, the EU wins .

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  2. AKMMarch 20, 2011 at 10:34 PM

    That was my immediate thought as well.

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  3. AKMMarch 20, 2011 at 10:40 PM

    That was my immediate thought as well. To go further it is probably just an attempt to get us used to the idea of the British and French working together in military adventures so when they do ramp up the common EU foreign policy it will be possible to portray it as a natural continuation of what we have already been doing. This recent military operation is most likely to be just taking advantage of the situation to continue the policy of integration on display here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-11670247

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  4. AKMMarch 21, 2011 at 11:45 AM

    Is that what he meant? I didn't read it like that, rather I took it as a comment about accepted "spheres of influence" of the larger European powers.

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