Europe Challenged: An Introduction to the Special Issue
| Author | Robert Falkner,Helmut K. Anheier |
| Date | 01 June 2017 |
| Published date | 01 June 2017 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/1758-5899.12424 |
Europe Challenged: An Introduction to the
Special Issue
Helmut K. Anheier
Hertie School of Governance
Robert Falkner
London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)
Dahrendorf (1996, 1997) warned long ago that Europe may
be ill prepared for the challenges of globalisation. More
recently, Giddens (2007, p. 160) has questioned whether Eur-
ope can afford its social model and the cultures it embodies,
while analysts like Mahbubani (2008) have repeatedly chal-
lenged the complacency of the West, in particular Europe.
Clearly, the conditions for pursuing a common path are
changing at a pace concurrent with global geopolitical trends.
In a fast-changing world, Europe runs the risk of being left
behind, diminished to what a Chinese commentator has
called a ‘center of museums and tourist destinations’(Anon,
2016; Barr
e, 2016).
The challenges facing Europe are mainly internal: low pro-
ductivity growth,
1
lack of technological and economic inno-
vation,
2
demographic changes,
3
the continued pressures on
public budgets,
4
and high unemployment,
5
especially
among the youth.
6
But more and more, these problems can-
not be contained within the continent itself, as the on-going
migration crisis amply demonstrates. After all, Europe is the
world’s most globalised region, its largest and most prosper-
ous market.
7
Its economic future is intimately linked with
the rest of the world through a dense network of financial
flows, supply and distribution chains, communication lines,
and travel routes. Europe is also in competition with the
other two global economic powers, China and the United
States. In terms of geopolitics, its security depends critically
on what happens in the regions bordering Europe, espe-
cially Russia and the MENA region.
These challenges pose nagging questions: will the Euro-
pean Project develop into a democratic governance struc-
ture capable of serving as a united vision and functioning
public administration for member states –or will it disinte-
grate into smaller units or muddle through as a technoc-
racy? Will Europe manage to maintain its leading economic
position next to North America and East Asia –or will it
become a regional economy more or less integrated into
world markets, but ultimately dominated by outside forces?
Will Europe remain, and be treated as, a world power –or
will it become increasingly marginalised in geopolitical
affairs? To address these questions from diverse perspec-
tives, this special issue of Global Policy brings together con-
tributions from the Dahrendorf Symposium 2016 ‘Europe
and the World –Global Insecurity & Power Shifts’held in
Berlin in May 2016.
8
The first section highlights global political and
economic transformations in an era of power shifts
Michael Cox opens by examining Europe’s relationships with
the three great powers the United States, China and Russia.
He argues that the prevalent pessimism about Europe is not
just a response to current internal trends; it also reflects the
perceived weakness of Europe’s position in the international
order. Major challenges to European power over the past 15
years have revealed a systemic frailty, he concludes, that will
likely make the global playing field more difficult for Europe
to manage as it moves forward into the 21st century.
Daniela Schwarzer provides an empirical assessment of
both the trends in power shifts from the West to other parts
of the world and the economic, financial, demographic and
defence-related developments driving them. She then con-
siders the potential implications of changing US policies for
the Western liberal order and, hence, Europe’s international
environment and its capacity to act at home and abroad.
She concludes that European governments must take imme-
diate action to prepare for a new global order by strength-
ening their own countries’capabilities and enhancing the
internal coherence of the European Union.
In a practitioner comment, Tobias Bunde and Wolfgang
Ischinger investigate the influence of President Donald
Trump’s foreign policy vision on European security policy
amid the stalling European integration process and growing
contestation of liberal democracy. More than ever, the Uni-
ted States seems to be unwilling to assume the lion’s share
of the transatlantic defence burden. The authors hope that
the Trump presidency would, therefore, serve as a final
wake-up call for the Europeans to assume greater responsi-
bility for their common security and defence policy.
The second section focuses on the effects of
economic globalization
James M. Boughton, Domenico Lombardi, and Anton Malkin
show that the economic and financial crisis of 2007–09
Global Policy (2017) 8:Suppl.4 doi: 10.1111/1758-5899.12424 ©2017 University of Durham and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Global Policy Volume 8 . Supplement 4 . June 2017 5
Introduction
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