At the start of this year’s Munich Security Conference, a stressed and overwhelmed Europe is at the mercy of evil forces.
Munich The Security Conference is an institution that brings together, in particular, the elites of European and American security policy each year, but there are others on the invitation list. Russian President Vladimir Putin just gave a speech in Munich in 2007 in which he sharply criticized the United States for pursuing a unipolar world order.
Putin will also dominate the conference, which begins on Friday, although he is not present.
The Munich Security Conferences have been a gloomy gap in recent years. There has been enough crisis atmosphere from Syria to Afghanistan. At times, the biggest concern was the President of the United States.
However, the gloom of previous years was only a warming up compared to this year. The situation is absurd. Putin may decide to attack Ukraine just as European and U.S. leaders bask in the glow of the crystal chandeliers at the Bayerische Hof.
European history is divided into pre-crisis and post-crisis periods in Ukraine. Russian troops are right on the Ukrainian border ready to attack if the order goes ahead. This is despite the fact that Russia’s goals are political and not military.
Putin’s offensive order would be a huge failure for the entire European project. Ukraine has very limited capabilities to respond to Russia’s military superiority. Experts estimate that Ukraine’s defense will take a few weeks. The rest of us are watching from the sidelines.
Munich Wolfgang Ischinger, a veteran diplomat who led the security conference for 14 years, cannot be blamed for optimism. The motto of the conference is helplessness.
Crises from a pandemic to a climate change and the threat of a major war are rampant around the world. They reinforce each other and spread a sense of collective helplessness from one country to another, Ischinger writes in the conference yearbook.
Collective feelings of helplessness are an eloquent concept. In addition to the loss of control, it describes a stressed Europe that is at the mercy of evil forces without politics in control. But yes it can.
Europe lost faith in its own capacity to make a difference. The economic giant stands powerless in the global arena like a political dwarf, Ischinger writes. There is anger in the words of Ischinger, who is leaving the position of conference leader. Even more is needed to awaken the sleepwalkers of this time.
The author is the editorial editor of HS.
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