Today’s Europe looks rather different. The Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe – one of the mechanisms Sir Robert thought was driving a deeper peace – is in tatters. Russia is rampaging, having embraced a cold-blooded realism, compounded by an opportunistic imperialism. Much, though not all, of Ukraine is rubble. Moldova is shaky and war continues in the Eastern Mediterranean. The European Union has lost one of its most powerful members, the demographic situation looks acute in some European countries, and the United States may be preparing to refocus on the People’s Republic of China in the Indo-Pacific.

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