Page 32 - AEI Insights 2020 - Vol. 6, Issue 1

AEI Insights, Vol 6, Issue 1, 2020

Closing Thoughts

Europe repeatedly missed to answer to the East and Middle East through a dialogue
(instruments) and consensus (institutions) although having both (via CoE; OSCE’s MPC; EU’s
ENP, Barcelona Process, etc.). For the past 28 years, it primarily responded militarily in the
MENA (or/and with sanctions, which is also a warfare, a socio-economic one) – via ‘Coalitions
of the Willing’. However, for a rapidly economically and demographically contracting Europe,
the confrontation does not pay off anymore. While practically still yesterday (by the end of
WWII), four of the five largest economies were situated in Europe, today only one is not in
24
Asia. None is in Europe.
(Likewise, while the US economy contributed with 54% of the world output in 1945, today it
hardly covers 1/3 of that share. Hence, Americans are not fixing the world any more. They are
only managing its decline. Look at their footprint in former Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq,
Libya, Mali, Yemen and Syria.)

The same way the Islam has started as an exclusive Arab monopoly to be soon after taken over
(for good) by the Turks, Persians and southeast Asians (who are today far more enhanced), the
same way the Modern age has started with Europe, but is today a planetary undertaking that
least resides within its originator. Simply, the Old Continent is not a wealthy club anymore. It
is a theater with a memory of its wealthy past. Presently, Asia, Africa, Latin Americas are
rapidly self-actualising and learning much more from each other than from the West.

And, Europe? Still to this very day, its national institutions are too quickly turning to culture
and identity to explain politics, especially at election times. As simple and convenient as it
seems, it is not as accurate as such. All across Europe, the governments repeatedly failed at
distributive justice, not on culture or behavioural recognition. Thus, the EU has to learn how
to deescalate and compromise. Certain identity cannot be put in line only with its geography.
It has to respond to other realities as well. This is in the continent’s best interest, for the sake
of its only viable future. Therefore, it is a high time for the Brussels-headquartered Europe to
challenge its rigid socio-political choices, and to evolve in its views and actings – for at home
and for abroad.
If we are any serious, let us start by answering the following: Is the so-called Russian
expansionism or MENA ‘Islamofascism’ spontaneous or provoked, is that nascent or only a
mirror image of something striking in front of it? And after all, why the indigenous Europe’s
Muslims (those of the Balkans) and their twins, indigenous Christians of MENA (those of
Levant) are now two identically slim shadows on a (bulletholes scarred) wall.

References

Kabani, R. (1994), Imperial Fictions: Europe's Myths of Orient, Pandora Books

24 The moment of ‘liberal truth’ always comes from Atlantic. Thus, Ana Palacio who served both sides of Atlantic
(as the former Spanish Foreign Minister and the former Senior Vice President of the Washington-based WB) –
among many others – recently warned the Western Ummah: “After years of handwringing over Obama’s strategic
“pivot” to Asia, even as Russia was stirring up trouble in Ukraine, Europe is once again a strategic focus for the
US. But the deeper message is far less encouraging. The US is acting because its European partners have not. This
divergence is troubling. American engagement is necessary to provide momentum, but it is Europe’s weight that
has served as the critical mass required to move the world’s liberal order in a positive direction. From the
perspective of the European Union, the latest US security bailout raises the possibility that after more than two
decades of growing prominence, Europe will lose its agenda-setting power.”

32