The former US defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, had his own particular views on the merits of different European countries. “You’re thinking of Europe as Germany and France. I don’t,” he memorably said in 2003. “I think that’s old Europe.”
New Europe, Mr Rumsfeld suggested, had a more constructive attitude to the modern world. We should look to the new democracies of central and eastern Europe for fresh thinking and, in time, more impressive economic performance.
