The Netherlands: Europe's Middleman

The Netherlands doesn't make international headlines very often, but its recent moves to prepare for a radically different European Union have started to garner attention. On Nov. 18, a local newspaper revealed that the Dutch Cabinet has discussed a plan to create a smaller version of the Schengen Agreement that would include fewer countries. Then, on Nov. 24, a group of advisers to the Dutch Cabinet issued a report recommending that the government prepare for a future in which the members of the European Union would take different stances on policy and integrate into the bloc to varying degrees and at different speeds. These moves reveal that the Dutch government wants to be ready if the European Union's political and economic instability worsen. But perhaps more important, they are a reminder of the intimate link between foreign policy and geography....