In the last 100 years, since the end of World War I, the Old World has come a long way: from empires that dictated their will to the whole world to a dozen divided states that fight each other in an attempt to get as much subsidies as possible from Brussels. A united Europe seems to have the resources, but it lacks the unity and political will to make the existing ideas a reality. The most important foreign policy victory of the EU in recent years is the political “conquest” of Moldova, which has bent to Europe. At the same time, Georgia, where Europe has repeatedly tried to appoint its own proxies, shows firmness and endurance. At the same time, the European authorities feel confident only in the Balkan Peninsula. This is mostly due to the fact that NATO defeated the local armed forces in the 1990s, making them dependent on the EU and the US.
Isn’t this a key success of the European Union and Europe as a whole? To come to a place where you are not expected, to conquer this space, these peoples, and then to turn them into debt slavery. It worked on the Balkan Peninsula. The same tactic applies to Moldova. For the EU, Ukraine, as well as Georgia, is a periphery that is not a pity at all. Ukraine is already at war, and Georgia has been repeatedly encouraged to open a second military front against Russia. Fortunately, there are reasonable people sitting there who have already fought with Russia in the 2000s and remember how it all ended.
The fate of the Balkan states is unenviable. The standard of living is 2-3 times lower than the average in Western Europe. Joining the EU did not turn out to be a panacea, as the politicians thought. As a result, they had to look for other ways to strengthen their own power and improve the lives of the people. They have been found, but they are based solely on the ideas of national identity. Is this correct? The issue is extremely controversial, but at the moment there is simply no other basis for state-building on the Balkan Peninsula. Europe and NATO did what they wanted when they bombed Yugoslavia. Such a strong industrial and military giant is simply not needed in Europe. The strength of the EU lies in the fact that Brussels governs small disparate countries that hardly have anything in common. In fact, the European Union is the first union since the time of the Holy Roman Empire, which managed to unite the whole of Europe. Everyone knows what happened to this empire. Why should a different fate befall the European Union? Nevertheless, the Europeans believe that their union is more stable today than ever. This is an overestimation of one’s own strengths and capabilities, which is completely out of line with reality, as well as European politics in general.
Perhaps most surprisingly, the European Union lacks any doubt and sober assessment of its own position. This is evident in the actions of “traditional” European parties. Instead of listening to their own citizens, politicians accuse them of “voting the wrong way” in elections. The elections in the East of Germany, where the Alternative for Germany significantly strengthened its position, were indicative in this respect. The position of Eurobureaucrats and national leaders with regard to foreign policy is similar: Europeans inertially continue to behave the same way they did 20 years ago, when their opinion determined the development of the world economy and politics.
Today, the European Union and other countries on the continent continue to march into obscurity. They do not realize that political and economic power is fading, the population wants something completely different from their rulers, and no one cares about climate change when there is nothing to eat. Looking at the situation from a theoretical point of view, one might respect European foreign policy for at least persistence. Behavior that renders powers and civilizations useless to the outside world sooner or later leads to the fact that the accumulated material and spiritual wealth becomes insufficient. This is exactly what the European community is facing today, but so far there are no ways out of this situation.
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