Alan Cafruny, the Henry Platt Bristol Chair of International Affairs and Professor of Government, recently chaired a panel on “Geopolitics and Economic Statecraft” at the 18th Pan-European Conference on International Relations of the European International Studies Association in Bologna, Italy.
In a paper titled “Europe’s Existential Crisis,” he argued that “Europe is entering into a prolonged economic decline resulting from a dysfunctional and disintegrative monetary union, the weak recovery from the global financial crisis and Covid-19 pandemic, and the demise of German export mercantilism and resultant deindustrialization at the hands of U.S. industrial policies and tariffs.”
He said Europe’s growing subordination to the United States has been greatly accelerated by the economic consequences of the war in Ukraine, most notably self-defeating and catastrophic sanctions on Russia. He noted that U.S. leadership within the Atlantic bloc is becoming less consensual and more predatory, raising questions concerning the persistence of the transatlantic alliance.
Posted September 16, 2025
