Timothy Garton Ash is British essayist and historian, professor of European studies at the University of Oxford (United Kingdom). His latest work, Europe. A personal story (Stock, 617 pages, 26 euros, digital 18 euros), which traces the history of the continent since the end of the Second World War, has just been published in French.
How to describe the current period?
A new period opened, on February 24, 2022, with the invasion of Ukraine by Russia. In terms of history, beginnings are as important as in Love stories. In the five years following the Second World War, all the international institutions we have today were created. In the five years following the fall of the Berlin Wall, the orientations relating to the post-Cold War were taken. We are currently entering the fourth year of a new era, and the direction we are going to take is very unclear.
For Europeans, this period is characterized by a triple shock. A Putin shock, first, with the return to a major interstate war in Europe and the awareness of a revengeful Russia. Vladimir Putin is ready to do anything to restore the Russian Empire, including resuming Crimea in 2014, as he announced in 1994, when he was deputy mayor of Saint Petersburg. He is about to achieve many of his war objectives in Ukraine, thanks to Donald Trump.
The second shock is the discovery that we, Europeans, entered a post-Western universe: China, India, Turkey, Brazil or South Africa are delighted to do business with Russia in a world of transactions between powers. Despite the unprecedented Western sanctions taken for three years against the Russian economy, it has experienced growth above ours, because non-Western countries have capacity and money to get around.
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Source: Lemonde