If ever there was a time when the absence of a political Europe was particularly cruel and dangerous, it’s now:
On the one hand, the United States is about to have a new president for four years; whatever the voters’ choice, it will give that country four years of visibility and continued domination of other democracies and the world’s major markets. On the other hand, in Kazan, one of the centers of Russian Islam and the home of Tolstoy and Lenin, Russia has succeeded in rallying almost all the leaders of the major countries of the South around a project to distance itself from the West.
The world is thus witnessing the clash of two major geopolitical superpowers.
What about Europe? Nothing. It is not a power. Despite its wealth, it still lacks the common will needed to implement its commercial, industrial, military and demographic strategy and ambitions. Today, it is essentially nothing more than a prey, very rich and very vulnerable.
Every day, therefore, we see a scenario being written in which history unfolds without Europe, which is no longer needed by the rest of the world, and which is at best forgotten, at worst occupied by Asian armies, and at least plundered by American multinationals.
And yet, the reality might not be so black:
On the one hand, whoever is elected on November 4, the United States will remain more divided than at any time since the Civil War: the dreams and projects of the people of Silicon Valley or BosMia (the conurbation that runs from Boston to Miami) have nothing to do with the fears and fantasies of the people of Oklahoma or Ohio; the future president will have great difficulty creating the cohesion necessary for the country to speak with one voice. The United States will be less and less listened to and respected, more and more occupied by its domestic quarrels, if not wars.
On the other hand, the countries gathered in Kazan agree on nothing: not on how to deal with the United States, not on Ukraine, not on the Middle East, and even less on ecology. They have no common policies and no common institutions. And their attempt, at least proclaimed, to replace the dollar in international trade will remain nothing more than wishful thinking as long as their currencies remain inconvertible. We have no examples of dictatorships with convertible currencies… The “Global South” does not exist. And it’s not about to.
In fact, this remains Europe’s main strength: democracy and respect for the rule of law, however imperfect, are better guaranteed here than anywhere else. This is what ultimately attracts researchers and creators. It’s what puts it at the forefront of today’s ecological and cultural battles, and makes its cities among the most appreciated in the world. It’s what’s increasingly lacking in the United States, where fake news, crazy beliefs and internal violence are increasingly ruining the very foundations of democracy. It’s also what’s missing in dictatorships where, like it or not, research is stagnating. This is what is alive in Europe more than anywhere else, and why no member country wants to leave the Union, and at least a dozen others dream of joining.
The world can see that Europe is the most privileged place on the planet. Europeans are the only ones not to see this and not to give themselves the means to remain so.
Yet it wouldn’t take much for Europe to regain its position as the world’s most dynamic nation. First of all, it would take a dozen or so high-level leaders with such a vision: ten Mario Draghis at the helm of European institutions and major European countries, and everything would become possible. There are a few of them. Young and enthusiastic. Not necessarily in the biggest countries, nor in the most important positions in the European Commission or the European Parliament.
This can only come from the driving forces of European societies: companies, towns, associations, who will make enough noise to ensure that we don’t let this opportunity pass us by; the last one, for Europe, to be in its true place in the world: the first.
j@attali.com
Image: Pexels.