The Ukraine War Lesson Europe Refuses to Learn

Perhaps we were all slightly unfair to Europe. In the immediate aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine a year ago, many observers had low expectations for how politicians and voters on the Continent would respond to the first war of its kind in nearly 80 years. Europeans have actually begun absorbing one of the two great lessons from this disaster. Unfortunately, they’re strenuously resisting the other.

Focusing first on the positive, the war has caused Europeans (mostly) to internalize that they do indeed inhabit a dangerous world—and, more to the point, a dangerous neighborhood.