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It's a little difficult to tell what such Europeans as the author really want out of their government. On the one hand, Merkel is enjoined to take up the burden of leadership of an international order that has proven signally incompetent at accomplishing anything at all except accruing political power it has not earned. On the other, Trump and Putin are deplored as nationalistic disappointments, both apparently interested in actually discharging their offices as proponents of the nations that put them there rather than committing to bending their countries to some sort of gooey, undefined internationalism that has clearly run its course everywhere but in the imaginations of the True Believers. Such as, for example:

If Hillary Clinton had won the election in the U.S., Merkel would not have run again, says one person who speaks with her on an almost daily basis. But that didn't happen. In his new book about his years in the West Wing, former Barack Obama adviser Benjamin Rhodes writes that Merkel felt obligated to defend the free world order in the wake of Trump's victory.

The what? The free world order? Or the international ruling class that has suddenly found itself as outdated as hoop skirts and transistor radios? What is happening worldwide, and especially in Europe, is a widespread rejection of those comfortable homilies and pious assumptions that are as substantial as fairy dust. And the fairies don't like it.

"If Germany fails in the duties of the central European power, Europe will fail," Münkler wrote.

But Germany will not, and that's really the point here. The European dream has turned into a smothering central state that is openly attempting to crush the spice of nationalism into a bland porridge of conformity. Austria and Hungary, for example, realize full well that they're no longer an empire but feel understandably that they'd like to remain Austria and Hungary, thanks very much, instead of tasteless pan-European toast slathered with a layer of Islam. They're far from alone.

If Europe really wanted to take its fate into its own hands, it would be a good idea to create a European rapid response force that could intervene quickly in crisis situations. Macron proposed precisely that during his Sorbonne speech and Merkel supports the idea in principle.

But the devil is in the details, and this ostensible Leader Of The Free World hasn't bothered even to dedicate resources to its own defense, much less live up to its international commitments, and, worse, has openly expressed an intention to continue not to do so. Whence, then, this "leadership"? Is a Germany, which can't even manage to build an airport in its capital city to be taken seriously as a champion of anything?