Hamas’s Violence Is Another European Policy Failure

Europe’s willing pre-2022 energy dependence on Russia. As preposterous as it sounds in retrospect (and did to sensible people at the time), many European leaders convinced themselves that this was a sign of strength: So great would be Russia’s economic benefit from selling energy to Europe that the Kremlin would never step too far out of line. Oops.

The collapse of that plan has opened European eyes to the second great failure of their old way of relating to the world—China. Here was meant to be an even more muscular version of what the Germans called Wandel durch Handel, or “change through trade.” Trade and European investment into China would hasten the country’s transformation into a more democratic market economy.

This hope was shared by the U.S. and others when China was allowed to join the World Trade Organization in 2001, and it seemed to work for a while. But the West now faces an antagonistic leader in Beijing, Xi Jinping, who cares less about the economy and more about expanding China’s hard power. Though economic influence might not work, the U.S. maintains a Navy capable of projecting power in Asia. What does Europe have?

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