Rise of Europe

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" height=35 BGCOLOR="#000099" TEXT="#F7F7FF"> <div> <B>Rise of Europe</B></div> <div>                                                   </div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" height=445 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <bR> <div> "Every <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Verdana" ><B>modern</B></FONT> transition of world power supremacy has involved an ally or former colony of the previous hegemonic power" (James Dale Davidson & William Rees-Mogg, <I>The Great Reckoning</I>, p.137).</div> <bR> <div> "The 1990s should be seen as but a temporary interlude between eras of cosmic competition. And America's allies in the last round (against the Soviet Union) are shaping up as opponents in the new one" (Daniel Pipes, <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#FF0000" FACE="Verdana" ><I><B>Europe vs. America</B></I></FONT>, capmag.com, January 21, 2003).</div> <bR> <div> <B>United</B><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Verdana" ><B> </B></FONT><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Verdana" >Provinces of the Netherlands (Protestant) then </FONT><B>United</B><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Verdana" > Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (Protestant) now </FONT><B>United</B><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Verdana" > States of America (Protestant) next </FONT><B>United</B><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Verdana" > States of Europe (Catholic).</FONT></div> <bR> <div> "History is coming full circle. After breaking away from the British Empire, the United States came together as a unitary federation, emerged as a leading nation, and eventually eclipsed Europe's Great Powers. <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#006600" FACE="Verdana" ><B>It is now Europe's turn to ascend and break away from an America that refuses to surrender </B><I><B>its</B></I><B> privileges of primacy</B></FONT>. Europe will inevitably rise up as America's principal competitor. Should Washington and Brussels begin to recognize the dangers of the growing gulf between them, they may be able to contain their budding rivalry. Should they fail, however, to prepare for life after Pax Americana, they will ensure that the coming clash of civilizations will be not between the West and the rest but within a West divided against itself... and America remains largely oblivious" (Charles A. Kupchan, <I>The End of the West</I>, The Atlantic Monthly, November 2002, p.42-44).</div> <bR> <div> "<FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#FF6600" FACE="Verdana" ><B>If the European Union is to become a genuine "United States of Europe" and fulfill its intention of creating a Common Foreign and Security Policy, then Germany must lead the way or the project will fail</B></FONT>. The most populous EU nation, with the largest economy in Europe and the most potentially potent military (if it moves to an all volunteer force), must drive ESDP" (Zachary Shore, <I>T</I><I>o the victor go the toils: The challenges awaiting Germany's next Chancellor</I>, aicgs.org, September 13, 2002).</div> <bR> <div> <B>What is Europe?</B></div> <bR> <div> "...<FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Verdana" ><B>despite the myth of a reunited Europe, Europe has redivided along historical-civilizational patterns, with the recently expanded NATO a variation of the Western Holy Roman Empire</B></FONT>..." (Robert Kaplan, <I>The Coming Anarchy</I>, (New York: Random House, 2000), p.182).</div> <bR> <div> "During the Cold War Europe as a whole did not exist. With the collapse of communism, however, it became necessary to confront and answer the question: What is Europe? Europe's boundaries on the north, west and south are delimited by substantial bodies of water, which to the south coincide with clear differences in culture. But what is Europe's eastern boundary? Who should be thought of as European and hence as potential members of the European Union...</div> <bR> <div> "The most compelling and pervasive answer to these questions is provided by the great historical line that has existed for centuries separating Western Christian peoples from the Muslim and Orthodox peoples. This line dates back to the division of the Roman empire in the fourth century and to the creation of the Holy Roman Empire in the tenth century. It has been in roughly its current place for at least five hundred years. Beginning in the north, it runs along what are now the borders between Finland and Russia and the Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania) and Russia, through western Belarus, through Ukraine separating the Uniate west from the Orthodox east, through Romania between Transylvania with its Catholic Hungarian population and the rest of the country, and through the former Yugoslavia along the border separating Slovenia and Croatia from the other republics. In the Balkans, of course, this line coincides with the historical division between the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empires. It is the cultural border of Europe, and in the post-Cold War world it is also the political and economic border of Europe and the West.</div> <bR> <div> "The civilisational paradigm thus provides a clear-cut and compelling answer to the question confronting West Europeans: Where does Europe end? Europe ends where Western Christianity ends and Islam and Orthodoxy begins... it is necessary, as Michael Howard argued, to recognize the distinction, blurred during the Soviet years, between Central Europe or <I>Mitteleuropa</I> and Eastern Europe proper. Central Europe "those lands of the Hapsburg Empire, Austria, Hingary and Czechoslovakia, together with Poland and the eastern marches of Germany. The term 'Eastern Europe' should be reserved for those regions which developed under the aegis of the Orthodox Church: the Black Sea communities of Bulgaria and Romania, which only emerged from Ottoman domination in the nineteenth century, and the 'European' parts of the Soviet Union"..." (Samuel P. Huntingdon, <I>The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order</I>, (Sydney, Touchstone Books, 1998), pp.158-60).</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <IMG SRC="0fe2bbb0.gif" border=0 width="555" height="443" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> (The Economist, <I>A Special Report on EU Enlargment</I>, economist.com, May 29, 2008).</div> <bR> <div> <B>Some Statistics</B></div> <bR> <div> * <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#FF0000" FACE="Verdana" ><B>The twenty-seven countries of the European Union</B></FONT>:</div> <bR> <div> Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and United Kingdom.</div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#003300" FACE="Verdana" >*</FONT><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#FF0000" FACE="Verdana" ><B> Population of EU 27</B></FONT>: <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Verdana" ><B>501,064,211</B></FONT> (Wikipedia 2010 estimate).</div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#111111" FACE="Verdana" >*</FONT><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#FF0000" FACE="Verdana" ><B> Population of the United States</B></FONT>: <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Verdana" ><B>308,745,538</B></FONT> (Wikipedia 2010 US Census).</div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Verdana" >* </FONT><B>The seventeen countries using the</B> <B>euro</B><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Verdana" >:</FONT></div> <bR> <div> Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Slovakai and Slovenia. <B>Total population of euro area: 328,597,348</B> (Wikipedia 2011).</div> <bR> <div> * <B>Constitutional Monarchies</B>: Belgium, Denmark, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Sweden, United Kingdom.</div> <bR> <div> * <B>Parliamentary Monarchies</B>: Spain.</div> <bR> <div> * <B>Republics</B>: Austria, Bulgaria, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Portugal, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia.</div> <bR> <div> *<B> Some Non-members</B>:</div> <bR> <div> Iceland - Republic; Norway - Constitutional monarchy; Switzerland - Republic.</div> <bR> <div> <B>Problem ahead</B></div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <IMG SRC="0ff46280.png" border=0 width="582" height="296" ALT="Bitmap Image" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> (John Maudlin, <I>The Problem with the Euro</I>, Weekly E-letter, May 30, 2008)</div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id58_m.htm" TITLE="Rise of Europe">Top of Page </A>        <A HREF="id53_manufacturing_and_trade.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="News, Current Events and the Future">News and Current Events Page</A>          <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Future Watch">Home Page</A></div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>