Day 1 of the Munich Security Conference.
The most interesting panel, about Syria, was programmed at 10:30 p.m. The room for journalists was almost empty; a woman next to me was snoring.
The panel about European defense, with among others the minsters of defense of the Netherland and Spain, yielded to one conclusion: No European country is capable of waging a war on its own at the moment. Almost no European country is really willing to work together with other European countries to strengthen its army, although everybody agrees that this is necessary. Discussions about integrating the armies of the European Union have been going on for the last decades. Some politicians present insisted that we are still discussing the same topics that we were discussing ten years ago.
In short: reason to be moderately optimistic, as long as the U.S. is guaranteeing Europe’s stability.