Foreign policy is – at root – simple.

Identify a clear and fair-minded position. Then use all available sticks and carrots to pursue it. And don’t give up quickly, lest you lose impetus and credibility.

Thus one might think that Russia’s August power-play to slice off parts of a fellow European country would be enough to make European leaders take a firm and sustained view that such behaviour has to have negative consequences.

Alas not.

This article describes the incoherent EU thrashing around over Russia/Georgia/Belarus which EU taxpayers are now subsidising.

And this one:

The key argument in favour of an ‘EU Foreign Policy’ we hear in the UK is that it acts as a multiplier for British positions.

What tends not to be mentioned is that it acts as a multiplier for other EU Member States ‘positions too, not least when they disagree with us. 

It is fascinating to debate whether it is better for the EU to have no policy at all than a bad one.

That is now the choice we are given.