22.4: Toward the Present

During the 1980s, Europe suffered from economic and, to a lesser extent, political instability. Other regions also experienced challenges. In particular, the Middle East entered into a period of bloodshed and chaos as the twenty-first century began. In turn, the shock waves of Middle Eastern conflict reverberated around the globe, inspiring the growth of international terrorist groups on the one hand and racist and Islamophobic political parties on the other.

The US invasion of Iraq in 2002 inadvertently prompted a massive increase in recruitment for anti-western terrorist organizations (many of which came from EU citizens of Middle Eastern and North African ancestry). The Arab Spring of 2010 led to a brief moment of hope that new democracies might take the place of military dictatorships in countries like Libya, Egypt, and Syria. Soon, authoritarian regimes or parties reasserted control.

Syria spiraled into a civil war in 2010, prompting millions of Syrian civilians to flee the country. Turkey, one of the most venerable democracies in the region since its foundation in the aftermath of World War I, has seen its president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan steadily assert greater authority over the press and the judiciary. Meanwhile, Iran and Saudi Arabia have carried on a proxy war in Yemen and funded rival paramilitary (often considered terrorist) groups across the region. Further, Israel continues to face both regional hostility and internal threats from Palestinian insurgents. As a result, the country has tightened its control over the nominally autonomous Palestinian regions of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

In Europe, fleeing Middle Eastern refugees have brought about a resurgence of far-right and, in many cases, openly neo-fascist politics. Since 2010, far-right parties have grown steadily in importance and obtained more political seats, as worries about the impact of immigration drive voters to embrace nativist, crypto-racist political messages. Even some citizens who do not harbor openly racist views are attracted to the new right, since mainstream political parties often seem to represent the interests of out-of-touch social elites. (Brexit serves as the starkest demonstration of voter resentment translating into a shocking political result).

What seems clear is that both the postwar consensus between center-left and center-right politics is essentially over. Likewise, fascism is not dead and gone but has lurched back onto the world stage. A widespread sense of anger, disillusionment, and resentment haunts politics not just in Europe, but in much of the world.

That being noted, there are also indications that the center approach still holds. In France, the 2017 National Front’s presidential candidate, Marine Le Pen, was decisively defeated by the centrist Emmanuel Macron. Further, even though countries have used military force to support their ideological and economic agendas, namely Russia and the United States, they generally refrain from launching large-scale wars. (As of this writing in April 2022, the Russo-Ukrainian conflict is localized, with NATO and other nations only offering humanitarian aid and weaponry, not sending troops.)

History provides both examples and counterexamples of things that have happened in the past that can, and should, serve as warnings for the present. Much of history has been governed by greed, indifference to human suffering, and the lust for power. It can be hoped that studying the consequences of those factors and the actions inspired by them might prove to be an antidote to their appeal.