Europe Adrift

Europe is adrift in the face of great turmoil and transformation. The liberal international order that emerged after the Cold War has disintegrated and the EU lacks a coherent strategic vision for responding to, let alone shaping, the emergent world order. There has been a shift away from market liberalism and toward state interventionism in pursuit of strategic autonomy. While the EU seeks to be more assertive internationally, its efforts are haunted by legacies from the neoliberal era that continue to limit its capacity for effective action. Herein lies the challenge. Europe struggles to overcome internal difficulties while simultaneously facing a security threat from Russia, erratic neo-mercantilism from the US, a competitiveness challenge from China, and declining goodwill in the Global South, all in the context of rapid environmental change. This special issue takes the dynamics of intensifying global inter-state competition as an entry point to survey the erosion of European security, growth and normative power. A Europe Adrift speaks to how the foundations of this erosion were laid on the basis of EU regulatory statehood, the contradictions revealed in the EU’s evolving governance architecture and how European power and prosperity are being reshaped in unexpected ways.