War on terror

Analysis: Will France invoke NATO’s Article 5 to declare war on Islamic State?

To confront comprehensively the Islamic State terrorist attacks on French soil, there have been calls for France’s President François Hollande to invoke Article 5 of the NATO Treaty, which ensures mutual defense for its members, but neither Hollande nor the military alliance has activated the provision.

The lack of a declaration of war from Hollande and NATO is a window into the courtyard of the EU’s gingerly foreign policy posture.

In short, it can be argued the EU failed to internalize the oft-quoted comment from the Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky: “You may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you.”