Here is what no one wants to say: This is, in essence, a security crisis. For years now, Europeans have chosen to pretend that wars taking place in Syria and Libya were somebody else’s problem. It’s also a foreign policy crisis: At different times and for different reasons, all of the large European states—the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Germany—have blocked attempts to create a common foreign and defense policy and, as a result, they have no diplomatic or political clout.
They haven’t wanted European leadership, and most of them wouldn’t have wanted American leadership either, even if any had been on offer. The richest economy in the world has a power vacuum at its heart and no army. Now the consequences are literally washing up on Europe’s shores.
Anne Applebaum, “Europe’s Deadly Denial”, Slate (4 September 2015) [http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/foreigners/2015/09/europe_refugee_crisis_the_eu_has_failed_to_confront_the_wars_in_syria_and.html]