Disarray in Europe and U.S. Leaves a Hole Where `the West' Was

  • Trump, Brexit, ‘Gilets Jaunes,’ departing Merkel root causes
  • Leadership vacuum ‘messy’ for Middle East, lethal for Ukraine
Photographer: Marlene Awaad/Bloomberg

The old conundrum of who to call if you want to speak to “Europe” now applies to “the West” as a whole.

With lame-duck leaders in the U.K. and Germany, President Emmanuel Macron humbled by the Gilets Jaunes revolt in France and the U.S. profoundly divided over its role in the world, an emerging leadership vacuum in the world’s wealthy democracies has grown suddenly acute.