Duly Noted: Still No One to Call in Europe
1. We are not used to get good news from the murky Middle East. Before the submission of these lines, it became known that Israel has developed technical means to protect herself from rocket attacks. The soon-to-be-achieved capability also applies to Iran’s long range missiles that might carry the nuclear war heads she aggressively claims not to be developing. The impending emasculation of the attacker’s means is accompanied by an offensive development. Israeli submarines with a nuclear capacity will be deployed to guarantee retaliation in case her territorial defense fails. In Cold War terms, mutual assured destruction that had worked rather well seems to be resurrected. The chances of nuclear war appear to be reduced. Here, however, we should become cautious. Significant differences can be discerned.
The Belgianisation of Europe
Lots of European countries indulge in shadowy coalition politics, with jobs divvied out among rival parties, but Belgium takes the biscuit. All Belgian governments are big coalitions, uniting parties that loathe one another, staffed by fixed quotas of ministers from the French- and Dutch-speaking communities (who also cannot stand each other). Democracy barely counts, as even parties thumped at the ballot box return to office. What is the link between this and the selection of Herman Van Rompuy as the first full-time president of the European Council, and of Catherine Ashton as a new foreign-policy chief? It is the European weakness for coalition politics, in which a quest for “balance” all too often trumps talent or merit.
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