Pre-Reformation Europe and the Coming Schism

The author asks if the EU has become a more strategic, forceful and effective player in foreign policy and on the world stage in the last five years.

The author gives a pessimistic response.

The answer can only be no. Europe, by all measures, is a less strategic player than it was half a decade ago. Even worse, the malaise far exceeds the field of foreign policy. Catastrophic pessimism has permeated all aspects of the integration project. External and internal pressures, from Russia to refugees, from Brexit to Orbánism, are wearing out the resolve and the resilience of the grandest project in political cooperation ever conceived.

But in reality, the malaise goes even deeper than this. It’s not just a political project that people are starting to feel queasy about. It’s the entire political class, the entire economic system, and the entire worthiness of Western liberal democracy that are being questioned. While Europeans were all busy trying to do the right thing, the EU has entered the pre-reformation phase of its existence.

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