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This is the Friends of History Debating Society. I'm John Batchett with Professor H.J.

Mackinder, six capital, six points of view, Wintertime 2023. We go to Brussels, a twin capital,

and I'm going to emphasize climate, because whatever wisdom we have about preparing for a long

war, it takes into account that weather is unpredictable. And the thing that was not expected

was a mild winter in Europe, mild winter in North America, mild winter everywhere.

I had routine reports that it was snowing and ascertained France and modest in London and Berlin.

So snowed in Kuwait. So what we have here is an unpredictable climate. That at this point says

that the feared embargo or blockade or cutoff of Russian natural gas, which would lead to people

being cold in their homes or unable to pay for electricity. That has not happened yet.

But there's the winner of 24, the winner of 25. Germany's building, floating natural gas processing

appears as fast as possible for the liquefied natural gas is flowing to Germany. They've re-opened

a coal field despite the protests. The Friends are working very hard to maintain or to re-awaken

their nuclear power plants, some of which are troubled by long delayed maintenance. There are

other things that I could go through. But in any event, the EU at this point is looking for climbing

out of a bad business environment because of inflation. The European Central Bank is active.

Everybody's waiting for prosperity. But as of now, Germany's saying they've avoided a recession.

So, Professor, the EU point of view. Are they encouraged? Are they pleased because many of those

states are also NATO? My view is that most of them are puzzled. They don't know what they really

...