While the US has commenced its “pivot” to Asia, the EU is at a critical historical juncture, one that demands its own strategic shift eastward. Paradoxically, Europe's lack of great-power status in the region provides a degree of diplomatic agility that the American heavyweight cannot muster.
MADRID – For the first time in centuries, the focus of the global economy is shifting to the East. The United States has commenced its “pivot” to Asia, and its relations with China, in particular, seem constantly to be flirting with Thucydides’s trap, the historical pattern that suggests that a rising power will inevitably collide with a reigning power. But, with the US and China regarding each another warily in the foreground of world affairs, where does Europe fit in?
MADRID – For the first time in centuries, the focus of the global economy is shifting to the East. The United States has commenced its “pivot” to Asia, and its relations with China, in particular, seem constantly to be flirting with Thucydides’s trap, the historical pattern that suggests that a rising power will inevitably collide with a reigning power. But, with the US and China regarding each another warily in the foreground of world affairs, where does Europe fit in?