European politicians, policy-makers and advisors have been feverishly strategizing about how best to respond to the crisis created by Trump’s murder of Qessim Soleimani. Nathalie Tocci, among others, has strongly argued that Europe’s attempts at de-escalating tensions in the Middle East must be combined with weaning the EU from military and economic dependence on America.
Tocci’s arguments align with incoming European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s drive to increase the EU’s geopolitical footprint by “learning the language of power.”
That entire project, however, risks failure if it does not address one fundamental challenge confronting it: US international criminality. Europe’s highest political class, however, dares not publicly name it as such. There are no words for it in the public lexicon of European political leaders.
