The middle east is now Europe's backyard

We are accustomed to thinking about policy in binary terms - domestic politics on the one hand, foreign affairs on the other.

But as the tragic events in Brussels demonstrate once again, home and away are not so easily separated.

Indeed, in a fundamental sense, the problems of a fragmenting Middle East are fast-becoming Europe's problems too.

Whether it be terrorism, the tide of migration, Libya's future, Iran's nuclear policies, or the problematic relationship with Turkey, the wider Middle East is now intruding into the European consciousness on a day-to-day basis.

In some ways, this is a reversion to a long-standing historical norm.

Think back to the colonial era, when France, Italy and Great Britain controlled huge swathes of territory in the Middle East.

The collapse of the Ottoman Empire in the wake of the World War One prompted an expansion of the French and British government's responsibilities in the region, with mandates in Syria and Palestine.