What is the role of Europe in the 21st century?

Abstract

Unquestionably, the 20th century was a “European century”, but there are doubts whether the 21st century is a European one or not! This depends on Europe itself and the capacity to formulate its role. Obviously, we are in a new stage of Europe. History knows Europe in different stages. It makes no sense to define all periods, but for the influence of the past you may mention some of these on contemporary Europe: - We had the Europe of aristocracy partly until World War I, when some families dominated the continent. A lot of it remained especially in history and memory; - We have the Europe of Enlightenment, when the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars very much supported human rights, nation state as well as the development of nationalities. The downfall of Yugoslavia was the last step on this way in our continent; - We have the European decolonisation when, until after World War II, Great Britain and France deeply suffered the consequences. Whether nowadays Russia might be understood as a colonial power comprising Siberia, Caucasus and so on, or not remains an open question for the future; - We had a Europe of global catastrophes, like the two World Wars with the consequence of the movement towards unification or, at a lower level, towards a better continental cooperation; - We had the Europe of the East-West-Division, where afterwards some ways to integration were gone, but it was not the whole Europe and division lines still exist.

Keywords

• Europe