On April 17, France and Britain gather around forty countries in Paris to discuss a future mission to restore freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz. The mission under discussion is explicitly defensive, designed for a post-ceasefire environment, and currently excludes both the United States and Iran. In parallel, European governments had already refused to join Washington’s active blockade of Iranian ports, arguing that doing so would amount to entering the war itself.

That sequence matters. It reveals more than a tactical disagreement with Washington. It reveals the deeper condition of Europe in today’s strategic order: a power still rich, still institutional, still eloquent, but increasingly absent at the moment when the hierarchy of outcomes is decided. Europe is not entirely irrelevant. It can still fund, regulate, escort, stabilize and repair. But it no longer imposes the tempo. Others create the rupture; Europe organizes the aftermath.

This is why the Paris meeting should not be read as a triumphant return of European diplomacy. It is, rather, an elegant admission of “demotion”. Europe is saying, in effect, ‘We will not shape the coercive phase, but we are ready to help administer the consequences once the main actors have finished rearranging the battlefield. ‘That may be prudent. It may even be morally........

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