HANDOVER: A German soldier takes down an American flag at a vacated U.S. base in Afghanistan
For the first time in 50 years, it is the U.S. that needs Europe's help, rather than the other way around. Americans realize that, without European diplomacy, money and soft power, freedom's march would be a lot more halting. In Kiev, Sarajevo, Ankara, Ramallah and even Tehran, the E.U. is having a more constructive impact than the U.S. Yet the E.U.'s transformative power is often confused with weakness. The E.U. doesn't change countries by threatening to invade them. Its biggest threat is not intervention but withdrawal of the hand of friendship and especially the prospect of membership. For countries like Bosnia,...
