Ukraine and the disenchantment of Europe

How could the Maidan protests and the ensuing conflict over and in Ukraine so seriously affect the EU? Did the recent developments in fact lead to a further disenchantment with the EU as a political project? Or, can this disenchantment bring about a more straightforward approach to the EU’s potential, and to fewer illusions about Europe as such?

In the recently published book ‘Playing Second Fiddle? Contending Visions of Europe’s Development’, Senior Researcher Cecilie Felicia Stokholm Banke and Prof. Bo Petersson ask if there is still room for what is still a very unique experiment: the European Union – or whether the train has already left the station? What would imply that the EU can challenge the United States, China or, for that matter, Russia on the global stage? It seeks to provide an answer by presenting four contending visions of Europe’s future, namely Europe

• as a promise
• as a bogeyman
• as a contested ideal
• as an anachronism

The book features contributions from, among others, Christian Axboe Nielsen, Anne Wæhrens and Magdalena Gora.