MidnightCall Magazine
News From Israel MagazineReview Calls For EU to Show True Global Leadership
The European Union should play a real leadership role in a world in which nation states have been weakened by globalization and most international institutions remain ineffective, according to a strategic review of French foreign policy. With a wide palette of economic and political instruments at its disposal, the EU is an accepted power that can play a key role in shaping the fast-globalizing world and help establish international norms in trade, competition, and environmental standards.The review, conducted by Alain Juppé, the former prime minister, and Louis Schweitzer, the chairman of Renault, reaffirms the centrality of the EU in French strategic thinking, even if the authors acknowledge that it is far more diverse and complex than Paris envisaged 20 years ago.He argued that the international system of governance was not keeping pace with the charging balance of power in the world or its emerging problems, emphasizing the need for a strong and effective EU.However, the EU itself faced a big challenge in responding to public, fears about globalization, as seen in the Irish voters’ rejection of the EU’s Lisbon reform-treaty.
The review says the region confronts four big security challenges: instability in the Middle East, Islamist-inspired global terrorism, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and growing tensions between the countries to the north and south of the Mediterranean sea.
-Financial Times, 13 July 2008, pg. 4
Europe today is already the world’s largest market, its banking system is the strongest in the world, and we must add that the European Union is bound to grow even larger. Unity was impossible only a hundred years ago; the European nations were strictly divided by borders, language, currency, culture, and tradition. Today they have become one gigantic power structure, and it is growing. This newly formed unity is not accomplished by weapons of war, but by words of peace. The success of Europe is building the foundation for a truly global world. Peace, prosperity, and security are the ingredients that weld the nations together into one bloc. We read of this formation in Revelation 17:12-13: “And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast. These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast.” These ten horns and ten kings are demonic power structures that guide planet Earth. They are unified, they “have one mind.” What is their ultimate purpose? “These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful” (verse 14). Today we find ourselves in the midst of such developments. The world is becoming one, peace is going to be established, and prosperity is available to more people than ever before in the world’s history.
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