In 2004, the European Union was described as the model for the future world order: a “metrosexual superpower” that would replace coercion with culture, power politics with persuasion, and empire with norms. That future never materialised. In 2026, global politics is moving in the opposite direction. Empires are returning. Spheres of influence are hardening. Soft power is giving way to coercion, resources, and geography.
This video essay examines:
The collapse of the liberal international order
The revival of American hemispheric imperialism
Why Venezuela, Greenland, the Arctic, and the Red Sea matter now, Europe’s dependence on US security—and the price it always carried
The illusion of European strategic autonomy
And why internal civilizational weakness precedes geopolitical irrelevance
The European Union once believed it could shape the world through example alone.
Today, it struggles to shape even its own neighbourhood—while enforcing ideological conformity at home. The age of appearances is over. The age of power has returned.
The question for Europe is no longer how to enlighten the world, but whether it can still govern itself.
