I started off this past summer hoping to write an essay on the global financial crisis and how it was affecting Europe’s evolving federal system. I was not surprised to learn that European leaders were handling things with rather more political skill than we were giving them credit for. What did surprise me, however, was, first of all, the large number and vehemence of Europeans apparently opposed to the Euro, and, by extension, opposed to the European Union itself. But, secondly, I grew impressed with the determination of most European states and the apparatus of the EU to defend the Euro. What I eventually came to realize was that the financial crisis was pointing toward basic geopolitical issues between the European and American federal systems, and among the European states themselves.
I started off this past summer hoping to write an essay on the global financial crisis and how it was affecting Europe’s evolving federal system. I was not surprised to learn that European leaders were handling things with rather more political skill than we were giving them credit for. What did surprise me, however, was, first of all, the large number and vehemence of Europeans apparently opposed to the Euro, and, by extension, opposed to the European Union itself. But, secondly, I grew impressed with the determination of most European states and the apparatus of the EU to defend the Euro. What I eventually came to realize was that the financial crisis was pointing toward basic geopolitical issues between the European and American federal systems, and among the European states themselves.
I s the United States a nation in decline? For over five decades this has been a recurring topic of American political discourse. The subject is sensitive and unsettling, and continues to raise discordant and inflammatory questions. For example: If America is in decline, is that decline inevitable? If it is not inevitable, who is to blame for it? Have successive leaders been wrong-headed or otherwise incompetent? Is national power being undermined by unfriendly critics? Or is policy bemused by unrealistic visions?
If you look at his month’s elegant invitation, you will note a strange omission. Where it says “Paper to be presented,” nothing follows. The next line simply says “essayist. Mr. Calleo.” This makes these invitations extremely rare, radically distinct from those for the preceding 1158 meetings. It may also make them valuable, like a postage stamp with the head of Washington upside down. Members would be well advised to hang on to their invitations. Anyway I am here to confess that the fault for this lack is not Mrs. Brooks’s, but entirely Mr. Calleo’s. I simply forgot to produce a title and then Avis and I disappeared into the wilds of Upstate New York until a couple of days ago.