Post-1945 attempts to transform "Europe" from a geographical to a political designation have resulted in a baroque accretion of bureaucracies, but no answer to Henry Kissinger's reported question: "Who do I call if I want to speak to Europe?"
The European Union is the world's second-largest economic entity, with member nations' combined gross domestic products ($15.3 trillion) larger than that of China ($14.7 trillion), and dwarfing Russia's ($1.5 trillion), which is less than Italy's ($1.9 trillion). Geopolitically, however, it is much less than the sum of its 27 parts, as the Ukraine crisis is demonstrating.
French President Emmanuel Macron would like to be designated to take Kissinger's telephone call. This month, when he began a six-month term in the rotating office of EU president, he displeased the febrile portion of the French right by flying the European Union flag alone under the Arc de Triomphe. He then delivered to the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, a speech that demonstrated why no Kissinger would bother placing that call.