Confronting Long-Term Challenges

FOCUS QUESTION What challenges will Europeans face in the coming decades?

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Russian irredentism, uncontrolled immigration, and radical Islamic terrorism posed major problems for Europeans in the second decade of the twenty-first century. Yet with goodwill, one could believe that these might be temporary crises, resolvable with determined government action. At the same time, European societies faced a number of interconnected challenges that seemed to pose longer-term challenges. The growing distance in international affairs between the United States and Europe revealed differences in social values and political goals, though both struggled to deal with turmoil in the Muslim world. A persistent economic recession had a devastating impact on the lives of millions and called into question the unity of the Eurozone. Climate change and environmental degradation exposed the dangers of industrial development and the heavy dependence on fossil fuels for energy. At the same time, the relative wealth of European societies in the global context provoked serious thinking about European identity and Europe’s humanitarian mission in the community of nations.