Blood is Thicker than Water

What remains puzzling is why Ukraine has not yet been accepted as a member of the EU and why NATO membership continues to elude it, writes Vivek Pattanayak

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THE future of Europe - more particularly Western Europe - seems to be under a cloud of uncertainty, as some analysts have highlighted, in light of the new dispensation in America withdrawing support from Ukraine and throwing cold water on NATO.

Going back in history, one would find that Europe experienced a prolonged period of religious wars, ending with the Treaty of Westphalia, which heralded an era of nation-state formation. The integration of people into linguistic entities, stripped of religious identity, marked a new phase in Europe. Thus began the concept of the secular state.

The United States, which came into being as an independent country after a military conflict known as the War of Independence, was initially populated by European immigrants - mostly from England, Scotland, and Ireland, and later from Germany, Italy, and France.

France played a crucial role in America's independence, driven by its old rivalry with Britain and taking advantage of colonial misgovernance during the "personal rule" of George III.

The German population was so significant that, during the formative days of the United States, German lost out to English as the national language by only a few votes.

Although Hitler had hoped that Americans of German origin would support Nazi Germany, this did not happen, as they had been fully integrated into American society.

Until the First World War, the U.S. had always followed a policy of isolationism and had never played a military role in shaping Europe's destiny. After the Second World War, the continent was divided: the East was occupied by Soviet forces, and the West came under American military influence.