00:00Stefan Wolff is Professor of International Security at the University of Birmingham.
00:05Professor, welcome. Good to see you.
00:07What do you make of the European responses to the conflict in Iran?
00:13Well, so far I think we have seen relative consistency across most of the countries in Europe,
00:20regardless of whether they are part of the EU or not.
00:23There has been general doubt expressed and quite vocally by several governments
00:30about the legality of the war that Israel and the U.S. started at the end of February.
00:38And in addition to that, I think what we have also seen is a clear reluctance by most European governments
00:45to potentially be drawn into what could still be a conflict that might further escalate,
00:52that might last for a couple of weeks.
00:54And certainly that will leave the Middle East in a much more volatile situation, even once it concludes.
01:00Given what you've just said, then, what is Europe's role when it comes to the crisis in the Middle East?
01:08Well, at the moment, I think the best thing that the European governments can do is try to exercise caution
01:15so that they do not get drawn into the war, that they do not become co-belligerents in a sense.
01:21And really join the U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran.
01:26The second thing that I think is equally important is that European governments need to develop now a strategy
01:34on how to act once the war actually is over.
01:39In particular, how to engage and re-engage both with the Gulf Arab monarchies,
01:45but also obviously with Iran, which will remain a very important, strategically important country for Europe and beyond.
01:54I wonder what impact have the actions of the United States and Israel in Iran have had on the international
02:02order
02:03and the standing of the global institutions?
02:08Well, certainly nothing good has come of it or will come of it.
02:13I mean, what we are seeing and what we have seen for quite some time now is a further erosion
02:18of the very idea of international law.
02:21But there are actually words and regulations that say very clearly under what conditions force can be used
02:28in international relations and the relationships between states.
02:32There's absolutely no evidence that this war that the U.S. and Israel have started was in any way legal.
02:41So I think from that perspective, that is one problem.
02:44The other problem, of course, is that it also demonstrates once again that maybe we are not heading towards the
02:51famed multipolar order,
02:54but rather that the U.S. still really certainly acts like a hegemon under Trump,
03:00but also that there is very little that other countries are actually prepared to do to constrain the U.S.
03:07in its reassertion of global dominance.
03:12Stefan Wolf, thank you.
03:14Stefan Wolf, Professor of International Security at the University of Birmingham.
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