Many progressives and internationalists on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean support European Union expansion. Increasing membership does not always bring peace. The Kremlin justified Russia’s 2008 invasion of Georgia, as well as Moscow’s 2014 and 2022 invasions of Ukraine, in its own paranoia about Western efforts to expand EU membership eastward.

The logic behind membership is that the EU is an exclusive club whose entry requirements bring peace and create security. The problem is European officials often prioritize wishful thinking over reality. Hence, Germany for ages thought dependence on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline and its Russian gas was a good idea, and Brussels thought that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was an enlightened democrat who had left support for radical Islamism behind him. Three decades ago, European officials wrested the Iran file from Washington, arguing that Europe’s enlightened “critical dialogue” could do more to constrain Iran’s nuclear ambitions and human rights abuses than American-style cowboy diplomacy. Iranian leaders treated Europeans as useful idiots who assumed the sincerity of calls for a dialogue of civilizations and knew they could drive forward........

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