EU must monitor good and bad flows: the latest US sanctions bill an excellent case in point #EUglobalstrategy

Lars-Erik Lundin, onsecurity.blogactiv.eu

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One can only welcome the ambition stated in the EU global strategy: “European security hinges on better and shared assessments of internal and external threats and challenges. Europeans must improve the monitoring and control of flows which have security implications.”

It is indeed extremely important to try to bring order into European strategic thinking on energy policy and its relationship to security.

It is easy to demonstrate that public diplomacy on energy has many layers and many complications. Often what different actors, notably the American President, are saying tends to confuse rather than clarify. A topical case in point is when President Trump late July tweets that he wants a strong military and low oil prices – what does this mean? Or more precisely – what message is he sending on the latter issue? Is he consistent with his earlier statements?

As often is the case with the American President: when it comes to consistency and clarity one has to look somewhere else. ...