EUROPE - For centuries, it has been British policy to prevent the emergence of dominating leadership in Europe. Elizabethans fought an epic struggle against the power of Spain and the Hapsburgs; William III led the containment of Louis XIV; the generation that saw the Industrial Revolution fought and defeated the ambitions of Napoleon; the 20th century brought two world wars to prevent German mastery of the Continent. Even Brexit can be seen as a revolt against over-mighty authority and a desire to rival it or escape from underneath it. It is in British DNA, for historical reasons, to fear powerful European leadership and to frustrate it.
But now, in a moment that is very rare in the past millennium, we have the opposite problem. An absence of authoritative European leadership is becoming a serious danger to the Continent and, since Brexit has not involved moving our location, to ourselves. Europe is in imminent danger, however, of its economy being left in the dust by America, its security being shattered by Russia and its politics being poisoned by an inability to rise to the challenge of events in Africa. It is time for us British to worry that Europe is in trouble.