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Opinion
Andreas Kluth

Don’t Be in the No Man’s Land Between Putin and the West

From Scandinavia to Africa, Asia and Latin America, many countries find themselves between the trenches. That’s a bad place to be.

We happy few, we G7.

We happy few, we G7.

Photographer: Thomas Lohnes/Getty Images

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One purpose of summitry in a time of war is the “family photo” — or rather, the harmonious and resolute unity it’s meant to showcase. So it was at last week’s summit of the European Union in Brussels and at this week’s gathering of the Group of 7 in the Bavarian Alps, and so it’ll be again when NATO leaders meet in Madrid in the coming days. 

As with actual family photos, however, the real story is often about who stands where and with what body language. And sometimes it’s about who should be in the photo but isn’t.