Professor Brendan Simms on where next for Europe and Britain

With the support of the Atlas Network, CapX is publishing a series of essays, podcasts and interviews on the theme of Illiberalism in Europe, looking at the different threats to liberal economies and societies across the continent, from populism to protectionism and corruption.

 
Frank Lawton: Is there such a thing as historical thinking – and is it of use to policy makers?

Brendan Simms: I don’t think there’s such a thing as a straightforward lesson from history. What I think you have, is the idea that history kind of seeps into the mind.  It provides a framework way of thinking, which is very difficult to define, but it doesn’t provide straightforward lessons. A nation’s history is both a constraint and a stimulus.

Do you see Brexit as a continuation of Britain’s foreign policy history or an abnegation of it?

Well, as I said, in my book Britain’s Europe, Brexit was neither a coincidence, nor was it entirely preordained. I think you can see in the past two very clear strands of British thinking on Europe:  broadly speaking, those who engage, and those who stand aloof – and even those who engage don’t necessarily regard Europe as something that you want to be part of as a political project. So I think that kind of history informs the Brexit debate.

We often hear the suggestion in the media that we’re living through some kind of echo of the 1930s – do you think there’s any merit in that?

I don’t think so. I don’t think there’s even the remotest chance of a general right-wing surge in Germany, because the public sphere is so sensitised to anything that would reek of a relapse into national socialism. Admittedly, with AfD and other groups, you have a stronger right wing, and in some cases even extreme right-wing fringe than in recent times. But I don’t think we’re anywhere near the 1930s. The only comparison with the 1930s that might be halfway helpful is perhaps the appeasement analogy with Mr. Putin, because we have accepted his annexation of the Crimea, and the war that he started in eastern Ukraine. And while he’s obviously not Hitler, and Russia is not the German Reich of the 1930s, there are, I think certain disquieting parallels there about the way in which we’ve handled this. I think, Mr Putin is a threat, both in the foreign policy sense and in terms of his impact on domestic politics.

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Πηγή: capx.co