In Hans Christian Andersen’s classic tale, two tailors promise to make an emperor a suit that is invisible to unwise people. When the emperor greets his subjects in his new clothes, only a boy has the good sense to cry out: “But, he isn’t wearing anything at all!” Such plain-spoken truth is urgently needed to dispel a myth that hobbles European strategic thinking: that Europe is too dependent on Russian natural gas to risk a serious row with Russia over its escalating war against Ukraine.
在安徒生(Hans Christian Andersen Award)的經典童話裏,兩個裁縫承諾爲皇帝做一件不聰明的人就看不見的衣服。當皇帝穿著新衣巡視他的子民時,只有一個明智的小男孩叫了出來:「可是,他什麼也沒穿啊!」歐洲迫切需要這樣直言不諱的坦率,來破除阻礙歐洲戰略思維的錯誤觀念:歐洲太依賴俄羅斯的天然氣,因此不能因爲俄羅斯和烏克蘭之間逐漸升級的戰爭與俄羅斯發生嚴重爭端。