Maybe the European Union is God’s way of teaching the British about Belgium. Specifically, it is a mechanism that forces UK politicians to confront the idea that Belgium matters. And not just Belgium but countries like it – the small countries. [...]
We are not alone in suffering from post-imperial angst, but we have tied ourselves in uniquely existential knots where relations with our European neighbours are concerned. Theresa May understands the deep cultural and psychological attraction of Brexit as a great unpicking – a disentanglement from continental ties, the benefits of which feel obscure to much of the public. [...]
But Trump struggles with the concept of mutual arrangements that guarantee stability without yielding a fist-pumping victory or cash payout to one party. He craves the firm smack of a deal. He appears to find the idea of big countries lending power to smaller ones for the sake of anything so sissy as “shared values” contemptible. He sees Nato as a European tax on the US military. [...]
The US is about to acquire a president who is relaxed about the dissolution of essential pillars of European security, when not actively undermining them. And this is the president whose offer of a trade deal is meant to give Britain confidence that Brexit will work. Given Trump’s known views on trade and the aggressive protectionists whose company he keeps, it is safe to presume that the non-negotiable terms of that deal will be total vassalage to US corporate interests. It will require a surrender of economic sovereignty every bit as great as that involved in EU membership, with none of the accompanying diplomatic clout.
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