Haass: Europe on the Decline

Plagued by fears of a possible continent-wide debt crisis, Europe's economic future is hanging in the balance. Council on Foreign Relations President Richard Haass argues in the latest Financial Times that Europe will soon cease to be the world's largest economy. Haass blames the Greek economic crisis on weak EU leadership, and calls out continental governments for their failure to intervene when the Greek economy started going south. "The European project is foundering," he writes, also arguing that European citizens are not committed to the idea of a cohesive Europe and are swayed by the powers of nationalism. "The combination of structural economic flaws, political parochialism, and military limits will accelerate this trans-Atlantic drift. A weaker Europe will possess a smaller voice and role," writes Haass. "What happens within it will not determine the arc of the 21st century."