I have just published on my Substack the text of the speech that I gave at the first edition of the East-West Forum in Istanbul on September 26: I should like to begin my remarks with a remark made by Professor Panda this morning when he spoke of the return of the national interest. This gave me quite a bit to think; because although it is valid for many countries in the world, I think there is a huge exception to this rule. That big exception is Europe. If we look at the steps taken by European countries in recent years in economic policy, in the fields of security, in geopolitics and especially when it comes to the war in Ukraine, it is impossible to claim that these countries have been pursuing their national interests, no matter how much you stretch the concept. European countries have systematically undermined their core economic interests, security and geopolitical interests. The obvious question then is: why? In my opinion, there are two possible explanations for this. One possible explanation is the following: European leaders have been misguided, they have acted imprudently; despite all the hard evidence to the contrary, they have pursued and are still pursuing what they believe to be the national interest of their country. Now, if it had impossible to predict the consequences of these policies, perhaps this possibility would be conceivable. However, this was not the case at all. For example, it was obvious that severing ties with cheap Russian gas would be disastrous for Europe. Many of us, including me, wrote this as early as February or March 2022. We were able to predict this not because we are clairvoyants, but because it was evident. Just as it was evident that Ukraine had no chance of defeating Russia militarily, even with NATO support; therefore, it was just as obvious that pushing for a maximalist military-only solution to the conflict would spell disaster for Europe, not only economically but also in terms of security. This was even truer for Ukraine itself, of course. Many of us have been saying this from day one. Therefore, unless we assume that European leaders were too dumb — and as dumb as some of them undoubtedly are — to see this reality that was obvious to many observers, that is, that this policy clearly ran counter to Europe’s interests, and then to see that doubling down on that policy would only make things worse, we have to consider the other alternative on the table: that European elites, for a long time, have not been pursuing the national interests of their respective countries, nor the collective interests of Europe as a whole. In other words, the classical realist framework, which suggests that all states tend to defend and maximise their interests in economic, military and similar terms, doesn’t seem to apply to Europe. Because, when viewed from this theoretical perspective, the line followed by Europe remains completely irrational. We therefore need a different conceptual framework in order to make sense of European politics; and I believe that the most useful framework in this case is that of “vassalisation”. In the simplest terms, Europe — by which I mean virtually all EU countries and the entire Brussels establishment — has been hijacked by a transnationalised transatlantic elite that doesn’t care in the slightest about the concrete interests of their own countries and is in fact beholden to completely different interests: private interest, i.e., the interests of a narrow oligarchy — today, mainly the interests of transnational financial circles and military-industrial structures — and foreign interests, namely those of Washington’s imperial core (and, as a by-product, of Israel). Continue reading here: thomasfazi.com/p/europe-an-o…