In October 2022 Josep Borrell committed a revealing gaffe. When addressing an event in Bruges, the high representative of the European Union for foreign affairs and security policy referred to the continent as “a nice small garden surrounded by high walls in order to prevent the jungle from coming in”. The outrage over this comparison prompted an apology from Borrell, who acknowledged the implicit “colonial Eurocentrism” of his metaphor. Yet quite aside from the ill-advised wording, his comments were notable: for what he was setting out in that statement is precisely the logic of Europe’s security today.
The continent is surrounded by instability. In the east, the front line in Ukraine has barely moved and civilians are bracing for renewed Russian bombardments over the winter. In the Caucasus, the dissolution of the enclave Nagorno-Karabakh and the flight of more than 100,000 ethnic Armenians could presage a larger conflict, with growing fears that Azerbaijan will now move to invade the south of Armenia.
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