Italy’s recent blocking of EU recognition of an interim-president in Venezuela and its populist charge against France are founded on historical fault lines in Italy’s foreign policy and populist politics at home, rather than genuine geopolitical strategy.

Winston Churchill in 1922 expressed the exasperation many English politicians have felt in dealing with the seeming endless recurrence of the “Irish Question” in British politics. In 2021, Brexit and the riots in Belfast have revived this sentiment.

For 30 months of time-consuming, often repetitive and tedious, negotiations with Europe’s leaders, an assortment of ministers and officials doing British prime minister Theresa May’s bidding have largely kept their counsel.