Europe is a bunch of states in a trenchcoat pretending to be a foreign policy superpower

A worthwhile update on the status of foreign policy and defense issues in Europe.  The EU and Europe have been grossly dependent on the US on both issues for many decades.  The coordination of interests and obligations has been difficult and has barely worked.  But just barely.  In particular, Europe's willingness not bare a comparable financial burden and especially the willingness of its largest and most prosperous countries to maintain any sort of operation defense capacity has been de minimus.  

Not all countries and not all the time.  And it is certainly true that the US, driven by domestic politics, has been less than consistent in its foreign policy goals.  To the point of fecklessness.  

But given the crisis in the Balkans in the 1990s, the invasion of Crimea in 2014 and the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Europe has been oddly uncoordinated and passive.  Again with some exceptions.  Indeed, among the smaller nations, there have been herculean efforts and generosity to support Ukraine.  But we need Britain, Germany, Italy, France and the other larger economies to carry their weight and work more closely with one another and with the US to ensure that Ukraine has all that it needs to bring the war to a quicker and better conclusion.  

From Europe is Whistling Past the Graveyard on Defense by Emma Ashford.  The subheading is Why aren't European policymakers hedging more aggressively against the vagaries of U.S. domestic politics?  While it is a useful update, I was most taken with this language.

The attempt to build a coherent, centralized Europe-wide defense tends to fail because of a unique set of pathologies almost entirely encapsulated by Henry Kissinger's famous remark about Europe. Even as it has become far clearer who to call with regard to monetary policy, migration, or trade, there’s still no obvious answer on defense and foreign policy.

The European Union is, to put it bluntly, a bunch of states in a trenchcoat pretending to be a foreign policy superpower.