The plan announced by EU foreign-policy chief Federica Mogherini in May to combat human smuggling in the Mediterranean demonstrated a failure of EU advisers, ministers and bodies to understand the entirety of the problem to be addressed, to seek relevant lessons on counter-migration policy, or to develop the kind of comprehensive approach that could stand a chance of working. Unfortunately, it seems that the initial plan put forward to the UN has become a cross that political and military leaders across Europe will now have to bear – and it will not work.