The European Union appears to lack the required unity and preparedness to adapt to new global challenges. Will it continue to wait for U.S. voters to decide its fate?
The U.S. presidential election was the last in the series of major elections held this year, but was undoubtedly the most important. These elections were held in a world that is becoming ever-more chaotic. We are witnessing two major wars – in Ukraine and the Middle East – as well as a series of smaller wars and conflicts that have no end in sight. Alongside the (de)globalisation process, climate change, as well as major and rapid technological changes, we are also seeing trends of new world divisions, multilateral organisations in crisis, as well as new forms of political propaganda – primarily populism – that have taken on the role of serious ideologies. International public law that has never been particularly well respected is now receiving a series of fresh blows in various forms: from the abusive attitude of some UN members (Israel) towards the UN Secretary General, to attacks on UN peacekeepers and the return of war to Europe in a big way.
Along with the paralysis of the UN Security Council, the U.S. – as the world’s most powerful military, economic and technological power – is no longer able to act positively in terms of controlling the international order, and it appears that Washington isn’t overly interested in maintaining this role in the new age of multipolar “disorder”.
The European Union appears to lack the required unity and preparedness to adapt its economy and geostrategic approach to new planetary challenges following a series of crises that has included Brexit, the pandemic, mass migration and wars in the neighbourhood. Will Europe continue to wait for its fate to be decided each four years by a few thousand voters in Wisconsin or Pennsylvania?
Unprecedented threats of nuclear war represent an existential peril for humanity as a whole, and not just for Europe. The hand of the “doomsday clock” is moving ever-closer to midnight
Despite the subject of EU enlargement having seemingly shifted from the deadlock that it was stuck in for years, this shift merely hints at a more decisive policy and strategy that we are still just beginning to glimpse over the horizon.
The war in Ukraine represents perhaps potentially the most dangerous crises since World War II and the wars of the Far East. In a kind of historical turnaround, seven decades after the major war that divided Korea, (North) Korean soldiers are arriving to join this major European war.
Unprecedented threats of nuclear war represent an existential peril for humanity as a whole, and not just for Europe. The hand of the “doomsday clock” is moving ever-closer to midnight.
Serbia’s foreign policy is shifting increasingly away from the country’s basic interests. Under conditions of deepening confrontation in Europe, straddling “two chairs”, between the West and the East, can no longer be justified. A more energetic course correction towards EU accession is a logical step, but principled statements about the path to Europe aren’t being accompanied by concrete reforms. There can be no sustainable stabilisation of relations in our region, which is one of the country’s vital interests, without European integration.
