The current problems in the European Union have their roots
far, far back in European history. George Friedman, author of other good books
on geopolitics (see, for example, the 2009 book The Next 100 years in my booklist) has written a book the first
third of which sets the context of today’s Europe by examining its past since
Henry the Navigator set Portugal first on the path to empire. Flashpoints: The Emerging Crisis in Europe
argues that the EU papered over, but didn’t eliminate, the longstanding tensions
in Europe, especially in the borderlands that separate, for example, Russia
from Western Europe, or France from Germany.
With the current crisis in the EU, and with the rise of Germany
once again as the pre-eminent power in Europe, these old tensions are coming to
the surface again. Russia, much weaker now than when the Soviet Union existed,
is doing what it thinks it must to rebuild its influence in the buffer states
to protect itself from the future possibility of yet another French or German
invasion. Britain is doing what it has always done – keep itself separate from
the continent while trying to influence the balance of power there.
This is a good book, and an important contribution to trying
to understand the dynamics of Europe these days.
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