Fractured Continent: Europe's Crises and the Fate of the West

by William Drozdiak

Overview

A Financial Times Best Political Book of 2017

An urgent examination of how the political and social volatility in Europe impacts the United States and the rest of the world.

The dream of a United States of Europe is unraveling in the wake of several crises now afflicting the continent. The single Euro currency threatens to break apart amid bitter arguments between rich northern creditors and poor southern debtors. Russia is back as an aggressive power, annexing Crimea, supporting rebels in eastern Ukraine, and waging media and cyber warfare against the West. Marine Le Pen’s National Front won a record 34 percent of the French presidential vote despite the election of Emmanuel Macron. Europe struggles to cope with nearly two million refugees who fled conflicts in the Middle East and North Africa. Britain has voted to leave the European Union after forty-three years, the first time a member state has opted to quit the world’s leading commercial bloc. At the same time, President Trump has vowed to pursue America First policies that may curtail U.S. security guarantees and provoke trade conflicts with its allies abroad.

These developments and a growing backlash against globalization have contributed to a loss of faith in mainstream ruling parties throughout the West. Voters in the United States and Europe are abandoning traditional ways of governing in favor of authoritarian, populist, and nationalist alternatives, raising a profound threat to the future of our democracies.

In Fractured Continent, William Drozdiak, the former foreign editor of The Washington Post, persuasively argues that these events have dramatic consequences for Americans as well as Europeans, changing the nature of our relationships with longtime allies and even threatening global security. By speaking with world leaders from Brussels to Berlin, Rome to Riga, Drozdiak describes the crises. the proposed solutions, and considers where Europe and America go from here. The result is a timely character- and narrative-driven book about this tumultuous phase of contemporary European history.

 

 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393608687
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	09/12/2017
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.40(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

William Drozdiak is a former editor and chief European correspondent of the Washington Post. He was awarded the Officer’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. He lives in Washington, D.C.

Table of Contents

Introduction xi

Chapter 1 Berlin: The New Epicenter of Power 1

Chapter 2 London: The Breakaway Realm 27

Chapter 3 Paris: In Search of Lost Glory 49

Chapter 4 Brussels: Capital of Europe, Tower of Babel? 73

Chapter 5 Madrid: Will the Center Hold? 93

Chapter 6 Rome: The Eternal City, Forever in Decline? 113

Chapter 7 Warsaw: Between East and West 132

Chapter 8 Copenhagen: The Green Welfare State in Peril? 152

Chapter 9 Riga: In the Shadow of the Bear 171

Chapter 10 Athens: Life on the Edge 190

Chapter 11 Moscow, Ankara, Tunis: Europe's Troubled Neighborhood 210

Chapter 12 Washington, D.C.: The Illusion of America First 232

Epilogue: A Post-American Europe? 254

Acknowledgments 267

Notes 272

Index 283

Editorial Reviews

William Drozdiak…has written a book examining the current crisis from the vantage point of various European capitals—providing a colorful narrative of how it is being experienced differently in each place…It is easy to forget how difficult democracy, prosperity and social stability are to sustain. During the postwar period the achievement of all three in Western Europe depended on social democratic, welfare-state capitalism at the domestic level, European integration at the regional level, and a liberal economic and American-led security order at the international level. Today all are crumbling. Fractured Continent doesn't tell us whether these arrangements can be revivified and what Europe's fate will be if they aren't, but it does remind us that the challenges faced by Europe and the West right now are seriously daunting.

The New York Times Book Review - Sheri Berman

★ 10/02/2017
Drozdiak, former Washington Post chief European correspondent, ably lays out current threats to the European Union’s cohesion while making clear that its demise would cancel out the “extraordinary achievements” made by late-20th-century European leaders. The rise of antiestablishment populism and economic nationalism, he observes, is causing increasing numbers of people to turn their backs on an admittedly unwieldy institution that nonetheless ushered in “a degree of prosperity unmatched in the rest of the world.” Drozdiak interviews political leaders in Germany, which “must decide virtually alone how to steer the continent toward an uncertain future,” as well as in the United Kingdom as it forms its Brexit strategy, in a weakened France, and in other European states. His main finding is that “the dream of European unity has begun to wither.” As the United States leans toward isolationism and Russia toward expansionism, the authors notes, the E.U. faces the nearly measureless complications of assimilating refugees while sustaining a battered economy. Under such dire circumstances, “the European social model so envied around the world for the way it softens the rough edges of capitalism could begin to fall apart.” In an impressively concise and clear volume, Drozdiak shows there are many routes to disaster, but no clear path to success. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

"Fascinating."

New York Times - Roger Cohen

"Drozdiak takes readers on a tour of European capitals, diagnosing the fractures he says still threaten to pull the EU apart….Europeans and Americans alike would benefit from heeding Drozdiak’s warning: That European unification may go into reverse and unravel due to blinkered nationalism on both sides of the Atlantic."

Politico

"A very good survey of what the European experiment is for and why we need to have an integrated Europe, both economically and politically."

Giles Merritt

"Thoughtful and full of relevant factual material, Fractured Continent offers a penetrating analysis of the Europe of today and tomorrow."

George P. Shultz

"This bracing and urgently needed account of a continent—indeed a world—undergoing seismic change should be read by all who care about the trans-Atlantic alliance. Fractured Continent once again demonstrates that Drozdiak is one of our finest journalists and sharpest observers."

Kati Marton

"Bill Drozdiak understands the importance of Europe and its institutions in ways that are essential for Americans to pay note. In Fractured Continent he looks at the recent upheavals that we must consider on the other side of the Atlantic if we are to understand ourselves and the West’s common predicament. The best part of reading Drozdiak is the rediscovery of how good a reporter he is."

Carl Bernstein

"This is the best book I've read on the recent turmoil sweeping through Europe—excellent reporting, beautifully written and sensibly, carefully analyzed. Everything that I would expect from a journalist/scholar like William Drozdiak."

Marvin Kalb

"In Fractured Continent, William Drozdiak accomplishes the near-impossible task of boiling down all the many problems, fissures, and cross-currents affecting Europe over the past few years into a concise, insightful narrative. If you can read only one book on where Europe stands today, this is definitely the one to choose."

James Mann

"A compelling and urgent alert that Europe’s creation of a peaceful community in place of a warring continent may be unraveling. Great Britain is leaving. Other EU members are suffering from political and economic stresses and the burden of refugees fleeing conflicts and migrants escaping poverty. For the United States, a diminished Europe creates an alarming risk."

James Hoge

"Eminently readable.... What sets Drozdiak’s inquiry apart are the ease of his prose, including lively anecdotes that put flesh on the major players, and his narrative skill.... Drozdiak is a pro at moving around the international court of political play. Fractured Continent is a sobering and significant look at an urgent problem."

Joan Baum

09/15/2017
Drozdiak's (former editor and chief European correspondent, Washington Post) book is most successful is in its analysis of the splintering of the "United States of Europe" through the scope of the challenges facing Europe's largest cities—from Athens to Warsaw—and how politics in the United States plays a role in its decline. Numerous works have been released in the past few months regarding the decline of Europe, but none captures the struggles and issues influencing individual cities in the same way as this one. Drozdiak posits that the struggle in Europe will not be confined to its continent, but rather will impact the United States. In addition, his book seeks to define the importance of continued progressive relationships between Europe and its allies in order to preserve Western democracies. For those who are seeking a discussion on the ongoing political, social, and economic issues facing Europe, this volume offers a comprehensive look into the past and the author's perspectives on how to move forward successfully. VERDICT A strong choice for readers interested in studying the affects of changes throughout the European continent at the city level. [See Prepub Alert, 4/3/17.]—Mattie Cook, Lake Odessa Comm. Lib., MI

Library Journal

2017-07-03
A snapshot of European capitals frozen amid turmoil, from Berlin to Athens.What former Washington Post chief European correspondent Drozdiak sees as the noble European experiment of a united democratic order since the end of the Cold War—undergirded by the three initiatives of the expansion of NATO, the creation of the euro, and passport-free travel within Europe—seems now to be imploding from within. What happened? A revanchist, nationalist stance has emerged in many countries, a North-South split due to Germany's economic predominance versus the south's debt-heavy load, and the influx of refugees from Africa and the Middle East are challenging the social and economic order. Indeed, the fracturing has already occurred with Britain's stunning vote to leave the European Union after more than four decades of membership. Drozdiak cites "scare tactics about unchecked immigration" as being a major reason, compounded by an "antiglobalization backlash." In France, growing class conflict led to the rise of Marine Le Pen's far-right party, which underscores the need "to restore respect for law and order, curtail Muslim immigration, and revive French national identity." These themes continue to play out in other capitals. Angela Merkel's bold decision to open Germany's borders to refugees led to enormous criticism, while overall, Europe is feeling helpless to halt the influx as well as impotent to restrain Russia's territorial aggression in Ukraine and elsewhere. In Spain, unemployment is very real, especially among young people; the country suffered through a crippling economic recession, while the "Catalan question" has taken on new strength. Hungary has erected wire fences along its border to obstruct refugee crossings, and Matteo Renzi, Italy's youngest-ever center-left prime minister, boldly stood up to challenge Merkel's austerity programs. Drozdiak pursues policies in Warsaw, Copenhagen, Riga, and Ankara, and he explores how Europe must deal with Moscow's "traditional paranoia about being encircled by the West." A timely, useful study of how the new reality of a "post-Washington Europe" may revive old demons of nationalism.

Kirkus Reviews

"A timely, useful study of how the new reality of a 'post-Washington Europe' may revive old demons of nationalism." ---Kirkus

From the Publisher