In this fifth article in the series on Europe’s Eclipse of Intelligence, we look at Europe’s woes on the international arena in the light of the shocking demise of diplomacy on the Old Continent today.
Peace Between Nations Requires Good Diplomacy
European leaders should be reminded of something that ought to be obvious, especially for them: diplomacy is the basis for cordial and civil relationships between states. The art of diplomacy, if well practiced, brings benefits to all parties and limits wars. As governments grew in size and were able to boost military power, first by conscription and then by debt-fueled military expenditures, embracing diplomacy is as important as ever in order to avoid the temptation of trying to resolve disagreements by violent means.
Indeed, when the Prussian officer and strategist von Clausewitz famously said that war is a continuation of politics by other means, he also meant that war represents a failure of diplomacy. This is because diplomacy is the tempering bulwark against military conflict in a world of conflicting national interests. It plays a crucial role in finding, if not always peaceful agreements, at least understanding between nations, but all while defending national interests.
Given that this is so, why would Europe want to forgo good diplomacy, in particular since it is not a strong military power? The answer to this question is not obvious, and certainly involves subtle social, political and psychological shifts at the level of the European political elite.
Yet, forgo diplomacy is precisely what Europe has done. Europe’s disregard for diplomacy is leading to frankly humiliating public exchanges with leaders of other countries. It is unworthy of Europe’s History and it is damaging to Europe’s interests and reputation in the world. It may hint at a deeper European insecurity and expresses itself in frankly schizophrenic behaviors, as the following examples show.
Kowtowing to Uncle Sam
Towards the United States, Europe is a vassal both diplomatically and economically. Indeed, the US is seen in Europe as a protector, even though the United States with complete impunity spy on European’s politicians, meddle in European political and economic affairs, collect data from private and public European sources, demand that Europe sell them companies that they covet, force Europe to buy expensive energy from the US.
Yet, towards the United States a self-deprecating Europe panders to “Daddy” Uncle Sam at every possible opportunity. Behind the poor diplomacy is obviously a lack of willingness to stand up for the true economic and geopolitical interests of the European nation-states. However, with good diplomacy this could be possible without antagonizing the US, also in the age of Trump.
A Condescending Disinterest Towards the Global South
The European political elite has a completely different attitude towards the Global South. The “schizophrenic” attitude reminds from a psychological point of view of an abused abuser.
Towards the Global South, European politicians show the condescending disinterest of former colonial masters, not realizing how the world has shifted economically and demographically. This was the case many times for instance when French president Macron visited France’s ex-colonies in Africa.
This is simply awful and counterproductive diplomacy, with predictable blowback taking place constantly in the form of cooling or souring relations with the rest of the world.
This tin-eared European elite’s attitude and lack of diplomatic skills was epitomized by the hapless Josep Borrell who, as EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs no less, described Europe as an idyllic "garden" of prosperity and the rest of the world as mostly a "jungle." He later apologized, but the damage was done. Even if his statement somehow were true, which it obviously is not for anyone observing the world, this faux-pas and lack of sensitivity is a prime example of the political elite’s disconnect with reality.
Borrell was replaced in 2024 by someone, if possible, even more inept; former Estonian PM, Kaja Kallas, who makes a mockery of the noble profession of diplomacy. That a person of such incompetence and lack of self-awareness can be appointed to the top of the EU bureaucracy is a telling sign of political decay. But Friedrich von Hayek explained in The Road to Serfdom (1944), “why the worst get on top”…
A Superiority Complex Towards China
Towards China, Europe condescendingly lectures, absurdly, from a position of convinced superiority. This is what Kallas constantly does, thereby humiliating both herself and the continent she claims to represent. An important moment was during a high level meeting with China’s FM Wangyi in July 2025:
Kaja Kallas displayed her incompetence as she is conflicted by personal hatred of Russians. Despite her catastrophic meeting with China’s High Commissioner for Foreign Relations, she tried to lecture him about EU values and democracy when neither she nor Ursula had been elected. She then demanded that China submit to the rules-based order of the EU and unimaginably demanded that China condemn Russia’s military operation in Ukraine, cease providing support, and use its influence to tell Putin to surrender and stop Russia’s advance westward.
Why alienate China, when it is becoming the world’s powerhouse of production and innovation, while the US is stumbling both economically and politically? Beside this display of incompetence, utterly embarrassing for any European with any self-respect, what these episodes show so glaringly, is the complete disregard that the EU elite shows for diplomacy, by choosing her as EU’s High Representative.
Diplomacy towards Russia : No Diplomacy
Towards Russia, Europeans leaders are stubbornly not talking at all, like sulking children, but then strongly resent when all diplomatic action takes place between the US and Russia.
Indeed, the conflict is Ukraine is perhaps the most important and glaring example of Europe’s neglect of diplomacy and its subservience to the United States. During the years and weeks leading up to February 2022, when the simmering conflict from 2014 erupted again, the Europeans showed a complete unwillingness to try to prevent war using diplomacy.
It would have been enough for the Europeans to honor the legally binding the Minsk II accords and public reject NATO membership for Ukraine. After the war started, diplomacy was purposefully wrecked again by the West in April 2022, as even the Ukrainians have confirmed. A bizarre collective European holier-than-thou attitude of shunning Russia altogether then started, which has continued even as Ukraine and the US started engaging with Russia diplomatically.
It was both an unhappy coincidence and a telling sign that just after the start of Ukraine conflict in February 2022, at a time when diplomacy would be of great importance to avoid escalation and misunderstanding, France published a decree to abolish France’s diplomatic corps.
The publication last weekend of a decree announcing the blending of France’s 800-strong diplomatic corps into a larger single pool of senior civil servants prompted outrage among politicians and usually loyal diplomats. They argue the move is a first step toward wiping out the country’s traditional career diplomats – just when they are urgently needed with the war in Ukraine.
Long gone are the likes of Tayllerand… and Bismarck, who maintained the status quo and peace in Europe, through alliances and sophisticated diplomatic moves. Today’s Bundeskanzler Merz would do well to remember Bismack’s important quip regarding Russia :
Kaja Kallas openly expressed her desire to see the Russian Federation broken up into pieces (!):
“Russia’s defeat is not a bad thing, because […] there are many different nations a part of Russia,” concluding that “if you have small nations, it’s not a bad thing if the big power is much smaller.”
Regardless of how unrealistic this Estonian wish is, such words contribute to driving the wedge even further between Europe and Russia. This comment also exposes the other major problem that is intimately linked with bad diplomacy: a lack of understanding of one’s own self-interests.
Indeed, the diplomatic train wreck with Russia in the on-going conflict with Ukraine is particularly unacceptable because the consequences are so dire, not only for the Ukrainian people but for the Europeans who these high civil servants and politicians are supposed, in theory, to represent. It is clearly not in Europe’s interest to antagonize Russia and exclude it from Europe, so this begs the question: why?
Why is this happening?
Worse still, today the European political elite is on the wrong side of History, giving crucial diplomatic cover to the genocidal state of Israel in their forced starvation of the Palestinians, as well as supporting to the hilt the dictatorial Ukrainian regime, whose nazi ideology, anti-Russian stance, and corrupt practices were called out for years, and as late as 2021, by Western MSM.
European diplomacy today seems to have taken the worst diplomatic traits of each European capital and adopted a combination all of their flaws: it is imbued with strange mix of Parisian neocolonialism, London’s subservience to Washington, Berlin’s political provincialism, Warsaw’s historical Russophobia and the foreign policy inexperience of the Vilnius and Tallinn.
This diplomatic train wreck by the European political elite is not entirely rational and can be explained partly by insulated groupthink within the ruling European minority. The Western globalist elite to which these Europeans belong, have become ever more detached from their own societies and thus do not have any qualms about pursuing diplomacy that is harmful to these societies.
To a large extent, current European diplomacy is also the result of the shocking subservience to the United States. The European elite believes, erroneously, that a prominent place in the world can only be maintained if Europe and its nation-states are “vassals” to the United States.
But this was not even the case during most of the Cold War, when the US was more dominant economically in the world than today, and yet European politicians showed real independence, with De Gaulle in France, West German Ostpolitik under Willy Brandt, and Palme’s non-alignment policy. Yet, Europe today adopts a shrill version of US diplomacy around the world. True European diplomacy is thus almost non-existent at the highest levels, because European capitals have internalized the idea that Uncle Sam runs the show with Europeans riding on its coattails.
Thus, Europe echoes the US strategic position even if it is not in its interest. This is obvious in the EU diplomacy, or lack thereof, towards China and Russia, the two main official opponents of the United States. Subservience to the United States has subdued deep political and diplomatic skills which could have served Europe so well, in particular as the idea of multipolarity is now sweeping over the world.
The lack of focus on diplomacy generally in Europe might also be explained by the fact that words matter less in a Western world in the grip of postmodernism. This postmodernism looks down on expertise, professionalism and process, favoring ideologues, communicators and puppets. These are the ones who are at ease and rise in the political arena, where perception seems as important than reality in the age of instant public scrutiny.
Finally, this failed diplomacy from the European elite should also be seen in connection with the other failures that are happening to Europe and that are part of its “Eclipse of Intelligence”, not least on the domestic political, economic and social areas.
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