Airstrip One

The Russia-EU Summit 11th November 2002, 23.18

Another indication that the theory of the European Union as a post-modern construct heralding a new avant-garde in international relations has lost its explanatory force since September 11th 2001. The Europeans told the Russians that Chechnya was not an internal problem, that they were checking the conflict for human rights, and there was a need to treat the conflict as more than a "terrorist problem". The Russians ignored the EU and stated that it was an internal affair, backed up by Lord Robertson of NATO.

There will be more examples of the EU promoting its agenda in a world where states, faced with immediate threats to their security, will view them as idiots, perhaps naive idiots.