It also reeked of the European Union’s peevish realization that its inability to get its act together on contentious issues was likely to place it firmly on the sidelines. At the Copenhagen climate summit last December, don’t forget, a deal of sorts was cobbled together by the US and the emerging economies over the EU’s head, even though Europe had the most advanced set of proposals on tackling climate change.
但当时这种想法其实是把全球的现实情况过度简单化了。它一方面把巴西和印度等正在崛起的大国排除在外；又夸大了美国的弱势，须知美国依然是世界上唯一的超级大国；同时还体现出一种令欧盟相当恼火的意识：那就是欧盟各国未能在某些争议性议题上站在同一阵线的状况，将使其在国际事务中牢牢地被边缘化。别不记得在去年 12 月的哥本哈根气候峰会上，虽然欧洲手里握有一整套应对气候变化的最先进提案，美国和新兴经济体双方对此却不感冒，最终合伙拼凑了一份粗制滥造的协议。