One of the better initiatives of the post-Cold War era has been the establishment of the so-called Nunn-Lugar funds to assist Russia in dismantling or otherwise securing “loose nukes” errant relics of the old Soviet arsenal. A report in this week’s Economist notes that the US spends more on “co-operative threat reduction” in a year than Europeans have over the past ten.

That’s just another reminder that, when it comes to really trying to secure the peace, most of today’s European leaders manage to blend the humility of Marie Antoinette with the statecraft of Neville Chamberlain. They are all about words, nothing about deeds.