Dear Readers,<\/p>\n
We have covered Europe\u2019s development quite regularly in Aspen Review. Points of view have varied from those ringing alarming bells to a business-as-usual perspective. Despite the picture of a constant crisis in the media, European societies have shown a relatively high level of resilience against financial or migration challenges and have not resorted to extreme political reactions. Perhaps, except Brexit…<\/p>\n
Are you concerned about the future of Europe? Is it because of the state of the economy, society, the environment or all combined? Will Europe be able to maintain its competitiveness? How many of the challenges Europe is facing can be attributed to technological changes and the progress of automation? Is Europe going to lag behind others and become an irrelevant object of geopolitics rather than an active subject in the international balance of power?<\/p>\n
In this issue, the author of \u201cDawn of Eurasia\u201d, Bruno Mac\u0327a\u0303es convincingly argues that Europe cannot be understood from within but only from a broader perspective since \u201cEuropeans are dependent on forces they cannot control\u201d.<\/em> He concludes that \u201cWhether Europe moves towards a genuine political union is a story where China\u2014not Germany or France\u2014will play the main role\u201d,<\/em> although this might sound a bit provocative after the recent deal on the leadership of EU institutions concluded between France and Germany.<\/p>\n As external influences are beyond Europe\u2019s control, it can influence a great deal from inside. To what extent is the shape of Europe defined by its own institutions\u2014be it the Council of Europe or some of the institutions of the European Union? Or can it be measured by the state of national institutions? I would argue that Europe\u2014including its institutions\u2014is formed first and foremost by the social, economic and political behavior of its inhabitants. Europe is simply us. Does that mean, however,\u2014recalling the topic of the last issue\u2014Europeans as citizens or customers?<\/p>\n Judging from the recent election to the EP, Europe seems to be increasingly fragmented. The centre-right (EPP) and centre-left (PES) will no longer form a dominant force. We shall see how the European Parliament\u2014politically empowered by the Lisbon Treaty\u2014will exert its influence vis a vis the European Council and the Commission.<\/p>\n Several years ago, Robert Kagan juxtaposed the soft and hard power of Europe and the US respectively in the celebrated dictum \u201cEuropeans are from Venus, Americans from Mars\u201d. It may sound surprising that he views Europe as a symbolic guardian of the liberal order\u2014\u201cBut only Europeans can bolster liberal democracy at home to preserve it in a world where it is increasingly embattled.\u201d<\/em> In an interview reprinted from our sister Aspenia-journal, Kagan values the soft power of Europe in terms of maintaining the flag of liberal values. \u201cThe fate of Europe as a set of liberal, open, democratic societies matters immensely to the future of our world order.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Perhaps we should not panic. I hope the readings in this issue will serve to make you more determined to carry on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Dear Readers, We have covered Europe\u2019s development quite regularly in Aspen Review. Points of view have varied from those ringing alarming bells to a business-as-usual perspective. Despite the picture of a constant crisis in the media, European societies have shown a relatively high level of resilience against financial or migration challenges and have not resorted […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":7725,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[91],"class_list":["post-9607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nezarazene","tag-foreword"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aspeninstitutece.org\/cs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aspeninstitutece.org\/cs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aspeninstitutece.org\/cs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspeninstitutece.org\/cs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspeninstitutece.org\/cs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9607"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspeninstitutece.org\/cs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9607\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10915,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspeninstitutece.org\/cs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9607\/revisions\/10915"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspeninstitutece.org\/cs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aspeninstitutece.org\/cs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspeninstitutece.org\/cs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspeninstitutece.org\/cs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}