Event details

Under outward pressure, Europe is supposed to unify. During four years of attrition from Russia, China and the US, this adage has been only partially borne out. Germany’s decision greatly to increase defense spending has been a sensible reaction to fears of America abandonment. But Europe remains beset by weak growth and inability to integrate. Any external relaxation - through ‘peak Trump’, a Russo-Ukrainian settlement or Chinese blandishments - will damp solidarity and drive the Europeans back to indecisiveness. The future depends on ‘variable geometry’ –smaller groupings of countries within and outside the EU banding together for a common cause . The path will be thorny but it is the only alternative.