For now, Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte can still be spotted around The Hague mopping up his own coffee spills, teaching a weekly social studies class at a mostly immigrant high school, or puttering about in his battered Saab (bought in 2009, a year before his premiership began). But this spring he will probably be given a rather more consequential job. The US, UK, France and Germany have backed him to succeed Jens Stoltenberg as Nato’s secretary-general. How would Rutte manage a military alliance that might face simultaneous attacks from Vladimir Putin and a re-elected Donald Trump? I asked some of his Dutch intimates.
现在，荷兰首相马克•吕特(Mark Rutte)仍然可以在海牙的日常中被看到，不论是自己动手清理泼洒的咖啡，每周在一所主要是移民学生的高中教授社会学课，还是驾驶着他那辆买于2009年的破旧萨博车四处闲逛。但进入今年春天，他可能将面临一个更为重大的职责。美国、英国、法国和德国都支持他继任延斯•斯托尔滕贝格(Jens Stoltenberg)成为北约的下一任秘书长。面临弗拉基米尔•普京(Vladimir Putin)以及可能再次当选的唐纳德•特朗普(Donald Trump)带来的双重威胁，吕特将如何领导这个可能遭受同时攻击的军事联盟呢？我向他的几位荷兰密友提出了这个问题。