Reviving global Europe

Abstract

The euro crisis increasingly threatens not just the European Union (EU's) internal economic unity but also the cogency of its international projection. Relatively little attention has been paid to how the euro crisis might affect EU foreign policy. In the future world order, influence will not equate with structural weight. It is something to celebrate if solutions to global problems come from non-Western sources, as long as the EU has worked to ensure that other powers approach problem-solving in a positive-sum fashion. Geo-strategically this is far more important than short-term commercial bargaining gains. Rising powers reject homilies on liberal internationalism, but will need to deal with the same challenges of cooperative security-building as their political responsibilities and interests accumulate. The EU needs to reflect not only on its immediate management of the euro crisis but also on how this will feed into the changing relationship between Europe and the wider world. This enjoins European governments to redirect their longer-term international policies.