Who Lost Europe? Hint: It’s Not Trump’s Fault
The mistakes have been decades in the making.
A magical night in November 1989.
Photographer: John Tlumacki/Boston Globe/Getty
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Who lost Russia? A decade after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the question reverberated around Western foreign policy circles as they agonized over the failed opportunity to establish the post-Soviet country as a democracy with a modern and liberal capitalist economy. A quarter of a century later, another question seems even more important.
Who lost Europe?
The fall of the Wall triggered a cascade of fateful decisions. In 1990, Germany reunified, contrary to all expectations even months earlier. Over the next decade, the nations at the core of the European Union launched the euro and laid the groundwork for a massive expansion. By 2007, membership had more than doubled, from 12 to 27. It was now a bloc with a greater population and bigger economy than the superpowers of the US and Russia.