What happens in Europe will have impact on global stability

The EU needs to be rethought and move away from the ‘one size fits all’ to something more flexible, writes Richard Haass

MORE than four decades ago, US national security adviser Henry Kissinger declared 1973 to be “The Year of Europe”. His aim was to highlight the need to modernise the Atlantic relationship and, more specifically, the need for America’s European allies to do more with the United States in the Middle East and against the Soviet Union in Europe.

Kissinger would be the first to admit that the Europeans did not take up his challenge. Nevertheless, we again face a year of Europe. This time, though, the impetus is coming less from a frustrated US government than from within Europe itself.