With his point made, Risch got up and left for the airport, by my watch at 9:17 a.m., without taking questions. It was an extraordinary intervention. Risch is next in line to chair the Senate Foreign Relations Committee if Bob Corker makes good on his promise to retire and Republicans retain control of the Senate. His words on these matters are of great significance.

Yet after Risch departed, the panel went on as normal. No one said much about North Korea except to reiterate that there is no bloody-nose strategy. Other preventive-strike options, which do appear to be under serious consideration, were not discussed. Indeed the prospect of the use of force against North Korea hardly came up earlier in the conference. If northeast Asia is on the brink of war, future historians will remark on how remote it seemed during that snowy weekend in Munich back in February of 2018.

The Risch intervention summed up the paradox at the heart of this year’s Munich Security Conference, whose official theme was “To the Brink—and Back?” There was no overarching threat or narrative that captivated participants. There was no sense of urgency. No feeling that we were truly on the brink. But, if you looked, red lights were flashing everywhere.

The Middle East appears on the verge of a new conflict involving Israel, Iran, and its proxy forces in Syria and Lebanon. Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, provided the conference with its “Munich moment” as he held up a piece of an Iranian drone and asked Javad Zarif, Iran’s foreign minister, if he recognized it. He went on to say that if Iran continues trying to establish a presence in Syria, Israel will go to war to prevent it. Zarif dismissed Netanyahu’s accusations as a “cartoonish circus” but convinced no one with his argument that Iran was not trying to dominate the Middle East.

The Israel-Iran clash in Syria is just one of several flash points in the region. Others include the possible collapse of the Iran nuclear deal in May if President Trump refuses to re-certify it, tensions between Turkey and the United States, and clashes between Russian and American forces also in Syria.

Meanwhile, European and American officials did little to dispel the notion that the West is in disarray. The foreign and defense ministers of Germany left the impression that they are not ready to take on a larger role in European security. The Polish and Austrian prime ministers made controversial remarks around the Holocaust and “Judeo-Christian values” respectively, highlighting the risk of a drift to the right in Europe. Theresa May, the prime minister of Britain, made a constructive speech about preserving security cooperation with the rest of the European Union, one that underscored how the best-case scenario for Brexit is maintaining the status quo. Only France’s delegation—led by Prime Minister Édouard Philippe and Defense Minister Florence Parly—truly impressed.