Leadership Crisis in Europe

 Leadership Crisis in Europe

Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, resigned not because he was a bad leader but because he violated certain ethical standards. Angela Merkel of Germany quit a year back on account of not any wrong doings or bad policies, but she opened the gates to refugees from Syria etc., which angered the German Right. The French president, Emmanuel Macron, was narrowly re-elected. The next five-year mandate is expected to be tumultuous. Eastern Europe has a durable Vladimir Putin, who leads Russia against the assault of Western Europe to corner him by expanding NATO to the Russian border. He is not an iron-fisted leader like Joseph Stalin, but he does not have the resources to defeat the socialist social model of the last hundred years. 

The free world leader, President Joe Biden of the USA, is a bureaucrat cum senator who by dint of his patience to stick around in Washington for the last 50 years, endeared himself to the Democratic Party and got himself elected to the top job. He has been in the most difficult position on the planet for only a year and a half, and the pressure of work is already being felt. At 79 years of age, with the heavy demands of his job, he is already exhibiting signs of cognitive decline. Still, he has to deal with internal America issues and a host of international issues. 

EU leaders must balance their economic and international status and maintain it for the future. Together with the American leaders, they pushed back the challenges of their pre-eminence from emerging countries. Differences appear, but have been managed until now. These day to day issues on the table are easily managed but the key is, how to retain their long range pre-eminent position when emerging nations like China and India are knocking at the door.

European and American leaders are now engaged in tasks on the table, but nothing seems to be done to plan for the future. Ironically, they treat all matters as independent states, but not as a union. That's why the US initiated and built NATO to safeguard borders. Later, they built the European Union themselves to economically integrate the different states where the language/religion changes every three hundred miles. It was a success, but not sufficient to integrate in the United States of Europe. I guess the reason is that they lack leaders who will take their own people into confidence and set aside the differences. That has not happened yet and is unlikely to happen in the near future.

To play this pivotal role, it is the European leader(s) who will set aside the differences and rise above the norm. To date, no leader of this kind has emerged. As for any leadership role to be played by the US, it itself is missing a leader of stature and sufficient weightage. The current leader Joe Biden is moving around from one blunder to another, from disastrous Afghan withdrawal to taking the first step to initiate war in Ukraine. There was absolutely no need for NATO to reach the Russian border, from which a war erupted in Central Europe.

Therefore, in the leadership vacuum, there are only day-to-day problems being dealt with. The future is in the Almighty’s hand. It is all leader’s fault.

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