The hour of Europe has arrived once again, Ann Applebaum argues for Slate magazine. The only, and typical European, problem? Europe may once again succeed in missing this grand opportunity to play a big role in the world.

Way back in 1991, when an otherwise forgettable foreign minister of Luxembourg infamously pronounced that sentence, it seemed to portend great things. It meant that in the post-Cold War world, Europeans, not Americans, would resolve the conflicts that were about to become the Bosnian war—and maybe a lot of other things, too. He was wrong. Those Balkan conflicts were eventually “resolved,” up to a point, not by Europe but by the United States and NATO. European influence in Washington dwindled—and then dwindled further during the Bush administration, which mostly treated the very idea of Europe as a kind of pointless distraction.

Fast-forward to 2008: The Bush administration is discredited, leaving a wide, gaping hole where America’s Europe policy (or absence of policy) used to be. Once again, an opportunity looms: As a friend in Washington puts it, “three Mongolians and a camel” could have an impact on whichever president takes over in January, so desperate will any new administration be for new ideas, for new policies, for “change.”

In a very real sense, 2009, not 1992, truly will be the “hour of Europe.” By that, I mean that if the chancellor of Germany, the prime minister of Great Britain, and the president of France—backed by their counterparts in southern Europe, Eastern Europe, and Scandinavia—were to walk into the White House on Jan. 21 and propose serious, realistic, new contributions to, say, the war in Afghanistan, the reconstruction of Iraq, the nuclear negotiations with Iran, and perhaps even climate change, the White House would listen.

Or perhaps I should put it more strongly: Not only would the White House listen, the new administration, Democratic or Republican, would immediately offer the Europeans the “leadership” and “partnership” they so often say they desire. Between the sinking housing market and the soaring price of food, the high price of fuel and low growth, the new president is going to have so much on his plate that a group of Europeans who appear from across the Atlantic announcing, say, a plan to fix southern Afghanistan would be welcomed with open arms. In fact, I’ll wager I could find a dozen future members of either administration who would roll out the red carpet and greet them like envoys of a fellow superpower if the Europeans so desired.

However, ‘I’d also wager that I could not find a dozen current members of any European government who have even thought about coming up with any ideas at all. This is the hour of Europe—but do the Europeans even know it?’

I fear that the answer to this question is ‘no, most of us do not.’ Well, most of our leaders do not, that is.

The main problem with Europe right now is that it is too much focused on itself. Europe is not paying attention to what’s happening in the world, let alone thinking of ways to make things better. European politicians, and especially the leaders of the big European countries, are trying to sell the European Union to the public and they are trying to make Europe ‘work better.’ As a hobby, you could say in their spare-time, they talk about the rest of the world and criticize America for this or that, but the main focus of Europeans is Europe.