Europe is heading for perilous waters, and its leaders are dozing at the tiller

Trump’s resurrection “would endanger European interests but Europe is not investing in mitigating the risks,” warned Ian Bond, of the Centre for European Reform. Defence, transatlantic economic relations and Trump’s disdain for the rules-based international order were looming problem areas.

“Most European leaders are still not being honest with their populations about the strategic situation in which Europe finds itself. Russia is increasingly putting its economy on a war footing,” Bond wrote. This helps explain calls in the UK to mobilise a “citizen army” and prepare for war.