Why Europe Must Learn the Language of Power
I'm just back from another stimulating Digital Life Design (DLD) conference in Munich where all the talk was about the growing technological and political gap with the United States and China. From Machiavelli and Hobbes to Napoleon and Bismarck, Europe invented the modern concept of state power. But decades of outsourcing security to NATO and the US have left the continent dangerously rusty both in the language and execution of power. According to Marta Mucznik, a senior analyst at the Brussels-based left-leaning International Crisis Group, "projecting power is the language of today's world." And unless European politicians relearn it, Mucznik warns, that growing gap between Europe and the bipolar reality of a US-China centric world will only continue to dramatically widen.
Keen On America is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit keenon.substack.com/subscribe
The case against forgiveness: Myisha Cherry questions a forgiving God, Christian forgiveness and happy Hollywood moral endings
The Buried History of Jerusalem: Andrew Lawler digs up the political archeology of the world's most contested city
Untangling the twin three-way relationships shaping the contemporary Middle East: Ilan Eyatar on Israel, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United States
Nothing will ever be the same again: Hugh Eakin remembers the year when the United States bumped into Pablo Picasso and modern art arrived in America
How to ensure the survival of democracy: Josiah Ober on ancient Greece and Rome as models of self government by their citizens
There's No Them There, Only Us: Kerri Maher on the Jane Collective in the early 1970s and how to write fiction about an issue as divisive as abortion
On Power, Patriarchy and Privilege: Kemi Nekvapil offers a woman's guide to living and leading without apology
Is the American Constitution undermining American Democracy? Daniel Ziblatt on how constitutional reform can strengthen democracy in America
Blood in the Machine: Brian Merchant on what we can learn from the 19th century Luddites in our digital age of gig work and generative AI
Notes from the invisible underground: Kat Calvin on the 26 million American adults who have no government ID and, thus, in the eyes of the government, don't really exist
How the quest for respect can heal our divided world: Michele Lamont on rebuilding dignity in our age of anxiety , inequality and isolation
Why Justice is Coming to America: Cenk Uygur predicts that progressives are going to take over the country and how we are all going to love it
Confronting Amazon, Google and his own powerful family: John Sargent on his adventures and misadventures as CEO of one of the world's largest publishing companies