The European debt debacle has made a mockery of the original hopes that inspired the European project. The EU may not survive the current crisis—and even if it does, it could be a severely diminished organization.
Europe’s problems go far beyond deflating currency and rising debt. It suffers from a lack of will, a crisis of confidence—and a serious identity problem. The once-great superpower has already fallen. Centuries of predominance slip away.
The Catholic Church is under assault. A secularizing West, the encroachment of Islam into Europe, and the sexual-abuse scandal all threaten the Vatican's ability to influence the masses. The Church's response will be felt worldwide.
The European Union’s potential for superpower status has been greatly exaggerated. Brussels has neither the stomach for the job, nor the united purpose to undertake it.
One must wonder why, with the end of the cold war, NATO did not dissolve. How do we explain the organization's transformation and vitality at the end of the twentieth century?
Beyond the latest rows, institutional paralysis and financial incompetence, the scars of war have plainly not all been healed. Is there a deeper collapse of European self-confidence?
A specter is haunting Europe and John Laughland: the specter of Europe united, of nations abolished, of the administration of things replacing the government of people. He has written a book about it that is intriguing...
