Russia’s attack on its neighbor Ukraine represents a blatant breach of international law and thus undermines the European (legal) order that has been built up since 1945 in order to build on a Europe of powers and their spheres of influence as it was known in the 19th century. While Europe is committed to a multilateral balance of interests between states on the basis of international law, since 2022 Russia has stood for the legal and violent enforcement of its power interests. The rivalry between China and the USA for global political, technological and military dominance also calls for a decisive and convincing political response from the Europeans to defend this order.
The European understanding of politics is not only being questioned from outside. In the national debt crisis and the corona pandemic, Europe has repeatedly managed to successfully defend itself against nationalist explosive devices after “looking into the abyss”. Will it be able to find a European compromise on migration that preserves the humanity that Europe rightly points to, but at the same time does not jeopardize the stability and acceptance of democracies? Will it find political answers to societies unsettled by disinformation campaigns and populism?
Is Europe in danger of blocking itself by increasingly reaching the limits of its possibilities and commonalities? In which direction is Europe moving after the turning point?
With our online lecture we want to remember the EU’s achievements in the light of this multi-crisis and at the same time find answers to the increasingly loud criticism from various quarters.
These are just a few aspects that we will look at in the winter semester with our online lecture series with experts and practitioners.