Drifting Diplomacy in Brussels: Kallas Marginalised, von der Leyen in Control?

In Brussels, European foreign policy is drifting between a leadership vacuum and an increasing concentration of power. Behind institutional appearances, a silent struggle is reshaping who speaks — and decides — on behalf of Europe, with one clear outcome: the growing irrelevance of the EU as a credible diplomatic actor.

Kallas Without Power: A High Representative in Name Only

Kallas was supposed to bring clarity and firmness, especially regarding Russia. Instead, what has emerged is a hesitant, often disconnected diplomatic presence, incapable of putting together a coherent diplomatic discourse—for instance, when she floated an ambitious multi-billion euro military support initiative for Ukraine only to see it rapidly diluted by member states, without managing to defend or reframe it politically, leaving the impression of a proposal launched without a strategy to sustain it.

In meetings and public statements, she struggles to project the kind of strategic narrative that the position demands. Diplomacy, after all, is as much about language as it is about power—and here, the gap is visible. As put by Michel Foucault in The Archaeology of Knowledge, discourse is not merely descriptive but constitutive: it produces authority, defines what can be said, and structures the field of action itself. From this perspective, the inability to articulate a clear and consistent narrative is not a minor communicative flaw: it signals a deeper loss of power, as the actor fails to impose meaning, set the terms of debate, or establish a recognisable strategic position.

Her remarks frequently lack precision or coherence—for example, when outlining the EU’s position on the Middle East, she alternated between calls for de-escalation and reaffirmations of support for Israel without clearly defining conditions, red lines, or political objectives—leaving both journalists and diplomats searching for meaning rather than direction.

More troubling is the perception—quietly shared in EU........

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