Where is Europe Heading to?

Introduction

There is a perverse spectre haunting Europe since the last few decades. A spectre of confusion, dislocation and disconnection between the political leadership and the peoples. From east to west, north to south; this flowing stream of unwanted confusion dominates and suffocates with subtlety in every sphere of human endeavour despite ‘freedom’ and ‘democracy’. This article attempts to navigate through the issues at stake especially the emerging geopolitics of weakness that is gradually taking hold on the continent of retrogression and an apparent space of exhaustion.

Open Door to Darkness

The end of cold war was greeted with anticipation in Europe especially in the Anglo world where part of the losers of the great second war substituted their meltdown for the role of new order remora.  While it was clear that United States will have a freer hand to conduct affairs in a world as its sole constituency, only united Germany become the sole geopolitical consolation. Of course some will claim that unshackling of East European countries is worth the feast, nevertheless the geostrategic goodwill that enable remained unrewarded. Even as the cold war was winding down, most of the political and economic structures of Europe have already started the rotting process.

What the so-called cold war winner remoras didn't foresee was their new imposed roles as cheerleaders and sponsors of new Washington DC conflicts.  The descending darkness of national politics created a sharp divide between the elected and the electorate in a corrosive relegation of the latter to their greatest surprise mostly for gross misreading of history. They don’t count rather the new global power elite consolidated as real winners of the neoliberal virulent economic programme beating gravity to suspend the majority to the expectation of ill-fated ‘trickle down’ effects.

After Germany then what?

Leaders of Europe turned into reverse creativity in deviating from addressing the critical question of the new century; what is the new role of Europe in the post-cold war world? For many leaders of Europe the period seems to align with an ‘end of history’ for a new ‘beginning of history’. The question definitely is loaded as it doesn't in itself suggest independence or subservience to United States. One can only assume that from legacy information and geopolitical capacity, with the demise of USSR, Europe naturally becomes a client continent.

While this stage of geopolitical evolution is not totally pessimistic, future stages cannot be anticipated from current European leaders. Even the Mitterrand-Kohl ticket only provided an inward framework that never challenged US supremacy. Consolidation of Berlin-Paris axis simply sustained a repeat of events at the Hall of Mirrors 1871. Europe is insecure and insular to consolidate power under a common framework and is intellectually deflective to pursue the world as her space of dominance.  The wisdom of elongation of NATO’s relevance versus WARSAW Pact demise makes sense in this dimension, as a tool of military dominance over Europe. This tool can be unleashed domestically to put European house in check in fashion similar to Operation Gladio.

In retrospect it becomes very clear that the highest geopolitical achievement of Europe is the violent balkanisation of Yugoslavia with Berlin in the diplomatic ‘lead’ and United States making the ‘weaponistan’ killing. Deutschland uber alles! Curiously, the main driver of this calculation was Washington DC’s geostrategic extension of an old elite hatred of and curtailing Russian (cultural) sphere of influence. Yugoslavia never posed a threat to Europe.

Falling Over Nonsense

While Europe became scared of the world basking in its ‘successes’ it became apparently clear that political, economic and military consolidation under United States allows for extension of neoliberal agenda, global security via ‘war on terrorism’ and sustenance of convention, tactical and strategic wars machines/hardware of which US is the sole supplier. In the name of winning the cold war, Washington DC cleverly cornered the market and with the threat of raw hard power got the leaders to acquiesce to her initiative. One way of getting European capitals to confirm is the threat of closing their exports to the rich North American market.

An important evidence of European total capture is the French re-joining of NATO Command under President Nicolas Sarkozy. That singular geopolitical suicidal act closed any gap of difference in the European space as far as US is concerned.  By formally linking their geopolitical future with Washington DC, the subservience phase becomes completed and the case for the west finally closed.

The haemorrhage of leadership in Europe led by Berlin opens another chapter economically with uncontrollable descent in standard of living and deceleration of income across the board except for the elite. The economic space barely makes 1% annual growth rate for many years with entire countries imploding such as Greece, Portugal, Italy, Spain and Ireland with other unnamed basket cases. In their miserable states and intransigence of Berlin, the perceived powerhouse, their important assets have become welcome chips for Beijing and other large sovereign wealth funds.  The recent past collapse of the French government attributed to erstwhile ministers’ squabble on the merits of austerity measure/neoliberal agenda is significant. Europe is now a space of austerity measures suffocating majority for the benefit of the minority.

These funds and their handlers have learnt how to pick up items of investment like airports, seaports, railways and other fixed asset on the cheap with huge multiplier profits. This is the same structural adjustment programme World Bank/IMF imposed on developing countries few decades ago. Now we wait for the capital flight from Europe to investor countries. In any case these sovereign wealth funds have becomes new geopolitical actors holding Europe at the stake and milking their many strategic assets for many years to come.

Now comes the Bear

One would have expected Europe to welcome and appreciate Europe that extends to the Urals powerful or powerless. The strategic interest of countries and the continent should have been a higher leverage for constructing an improved relationship with Moscow. On the contrary weak Europe invested their asset and resources to sabotage their core interest even when huge economic opportunities are at stake especially for those countries in the doldrums.

By placing sanction on Moscow, the thesis of subservience is confirmed; the leadership crisis in Europe is certified especially in Berlin and Europe as a space of retrogression is unequivocally entrenched. Geopolitically and geoeconomically, Europe as a space of economic downturn is clarified. If the planet is spread out on a flat 2 dimensional map, other continents and regions will display rises in annual economic growth (height) of various proportion, while Europe will surely be a large depression as a promontory of Asia.

In the latest round of sanction against Moscow, Europe was the loser before its enactment.  Even Egypt and South American countries are potential beneficiaries of the huge Russian market. When states or continent groups design geopolitical policies in contrary to the spirit of their strategic interest, then their raison d’etre has ceased to exist. Unexamined leadership is not worthy of existence.