Introduction
As we approach 2026, it’s challenging to feel optimistic about Europe. The world largely disregards the continent, and the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump openly expresses its disdain for the European Union. With many EU countries turning inward, is a political revival of Europe still possible?
Current Challenges Facing Europe
On the surface, the situation appears grim. In recent times, Europe has become an ill-fitting hybrid: a punching bag and a laughingstock. The Trump administration’s National Security Strategy (NSS) dismissively states that Europe faces “civilizational disappearance,” and Russian President Vladimir Putin describes European leaders as “pigs.” Although China employs a more understanding rhetoric, urging Europe to collaborate in preserving multilateralism, key European leaders like French President Emmanuel Macron and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen believe China’s trade imbalances are destroying European industry.
Moreover, Europe’s fiscal issues are exacerbating its political weakness. Belgium’s recent rejection of a plan to use frozen Russian central bank assets to support Ukraine, while legally defensible, seems another example of Europe’s failure to uphold its commitments.
Historical Context and Hope
Despite these challenges, history offers reasons for hope. Europe has faced similarly vulnerable situations before. The sense of despair and exhaustion was even deeper at the end of the Napoleonic Wars, after failed revolutions in 1848, and following the devastation of World War I and II.
Mid-19th century German writers like Joseph von Eichendorff focused on how Europe’s embrace of progress clashed with its nostalgia culture, causing stagnation. Similarly, economist John Maynard Keynes, in critiquing the post-World War I political agreement, saw writing on the wall. He cited Thomas Hardy’s drama “The Dynasts” about the Napoleonic era, recognizing that “nothing remains / but vengeance here among the strong / and there among the weak, a powerless rage.”
However, each time, Europe reinvented itself by reimagining the world. Sometimes, this meant aggressively pursuing empire or instigating new crises requiring isolationist America’s intervention. Yet, reinvention sometimes led to more positive advancements, with the most successful occurring post-1945.
The Gaullist Perspective
It’s common, especially in hindsight, to assert that a narrow material success concept shaped post-war European order, with economic connection and prosperity as pillars of political stability. However, this interpretation overlooks the era’s radicalism. Behind the creation of a new Europe lay a fundamentally different political vision, best exemplified by General Charles de Gaulle.
Though Gaullism is often reduced to a notion of patriotism, the description doesn’t do it justice. De Gaulle brought a fundamentally new perspective to European politics after deeply contemplating the Franco-German antagonism, France’s 1940 defeat, and the voluntary surrender of France’s military and political elite. He understood that the deep wound could only be healed by reuniting both sides. France couldn’t politically reconstruct itself without a politically reconstructed Germany.
The same logic underlies the search for a solution to the security threat posed by Russia today. Boosting Europe’s defense capacity is a response to the immediate challenge, but it doesn’t guarantee lasting stability. To achieve that, one must reject the spheres-of-interest thinking animating both the Trump administration’s new NSS—with its conspicuous reaffirmation of the Monroe Doctrine (now the “Donroe Doctrine”) for Latin America—and Putin’s 2021 manifesto, “On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians.” Both documents reflect an obsession with historical claims, with Putin tracing back to Saint Vladimir’s baptism, the Kievan Rus, and the threat Poles and Lithuanians posed to Russia in the Early Modern period.
A New Russia and American Reaction
There’s no reason to believe Americans or Russians genuinely want to engage with their current leaders’ strange and costly doctrines. In fact, a reaction is already brewing in the U.S., where an open public sphere hosts heated debates on government corruption, transactional foreign policies, inhumane deportations, and war crimes.
One can also envision a new Russia. Though the repressive nature of Putin’s regime makes assessing genuine public opinion difficult, signs are there for those who know where to look. For instance, the enthusiastic response to Michael Lockshin’s American-Russian filmmaker’s adaptation of Mijaíl Bulgákov’s “Master and Margarita” is noteworthy. With over six million viewers in Russia, it’s one of the country’s most successful box office hits.
Key Questions and Answers
- What challenges is Europe currently facing? Europe grapples with fiscal issues, disregard from the world stage, and internal divisions, making a political revival seem uncertain.
- How has Europe historically overcome adversity? Despite facing similar vulnerabilities in the past, Europe has continually reinvented itself, sometimes through positive advancements like post-1945 developments.
- What is the Gaullist perspective on Europe? General Charles de Gaulle emphasized the necessity of reuniting France and Germany for Europe’s political resurgence.
- What is the current state of U.S.-Russia relations? There’s growing discontent in the U.S. regarding leadership doctrines, and signs suggest potential for change in Russia, despite its repressive regime.
The Author
Harold James, Professor of History and International Affairs at Princeton University, is the author of, most recently, Seven Crashes: The Economic Crises That Shaped Globalization (Yale University Press, 2023).
Copyright: Project Syndicate, 1995 – 2026
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