When Donald Rumsfeld was US secretary for defence in 2003, as George W. Bush’s administration was hell-bent on war in Iraq, he managed to infuriate his European allies with one pointed observation: when he dismissed opponents of the war – particularly France and Germany – as “old Europe”.
There was a “new Europe”, he implied, consisting of all the new member states of Nato and the European Union – former members of the Warsaw pact – who were much more Atlanticist, pro-American, and ready to stand up and support the war on terror. “Old Europe” was feeble and unwilling to fight.
