Will U.S.-China Competition Threaten EU Integration?
The future of economic and political integration will be determined by the willingness of Europe’s citizens to defend their interests.
Yet, in the hard power game, the United States and China will compete for spheres of influence in Europe by addressing nation-states according to their choices and preferences and linking them to their political, economic, and maybe even military orbits. In fact, this process has already started.
In the end, the irony will be that a region composed of many former imperial powers will become a playground for the United States and China.
Joergen Oerstroem Moeller is a former state-secretary for the Royal Danish Foreign Ministry and the author of Asia’s Transformation: From Economic Globalization to Regionalization, ISEAS, Singapore 2019 and The Veil of Circumstance: Technology, Values, Dehumanization and the Future of Economics and Politics, ISEAS, Singapore, 2016.
Image: Reuters.