Europe is a museum? Then it might be the only place worth visiting.

Walk through the immaculately preserved streets of Paris, Brussels or Berlin. The quality of life is undeniable. The public transport functions. The healthcare protects. The cafes are full.

It feels permanent. It feels like the end of history.

But listen closely.

Beneath the hum of the espresso machines and the polite discourse of the European Parliament, there is a vacuum. It is the silence of a continent that has forgotten how to manufacture the one commodity that guarantees all others.

Security.

For three decades, Europe has operated on a delusion: that economic interdependence replaces military conflict. We believed that if we bought gas from Russia and sold cars to China, war would become obsolete. We believed that soft power - rules, norms, standards - could constrain hard power.

We were wrong.