Endless summits and the decline of the West

It usually takes a hugely charismatic leader to unite countries that have been in serious conflict over time. And the Bible foretells that just such a personality will arise in Europe and bring order out of chaos - though at enormous cost.

Philip Stevens, senior columnist of the Financial Times, observed: "Not so long ago consecutive summits of the western powers would have called the world to attention. Nowadays, these gatherings call attention only to how fast and far the west has fallen. If one were looking for a metaphor for a decade of decline, there have been few more telling than the latest summits of leaders of the G8 nations and Nato" ("Summits That Cap the West's Decline," May 24, 2012).

There is increasing divisiveness. Stevens continued, "Ten years on, Europe is in the grip of the nationalisms it thought had banished."

And there is also increasing decadence despite economic turmoil and decline.

The Wall Street Journal recently borrowed from Shakespeare by titling an article on the latest eurozone conference "Much Euro Ado About Nothing." The text of the article began, "A meeting of euro-zone leaders that wasn't designed to decide anything didn't actually decide anything" (Simon Nixon, May 24, 2012).

This should come as no surprise, since these "confabs" are often just a pretext for politicians and staffers living it up at taxpayer expense.

Yet despite the ongoing decline, Stevens concluded: "The West is not finished. These nations remain by far the richest on the planet. For every tale of woe about gridlock in Washington there is a story of American enterprise and ingenuity. Billions of people around the world would give anything for what the Europeans call austerity."

However, he ended his article with this complaint about how the decline is being managed: "What is so maddening is that the leaders who gathered in Washington and Chicago seem so determined to make the very worst of it."

Yet even in present circumstances, never forget the long history of Europe. (Churchill didn't, and England benefited.) It was fraught with empires and dictatorships that carried on for significant periods despite ethnic division.

We should remember Rome. We should also recall the Austro-Hungarian Empire with its longtime emperor Franz Josef (reigned 1848-1916). Like the Turkish Ottoman Empire, it only ended as a result of World War I (1914-1918). Marshal Tito actually united several Balkan nations at the time of World War II into Yugoslavia, which grew in ethnic tension in the decade after his death in 1980, ultimately breaking up in 1991-1992.

It usually takes a hugely charismatic leader to unite countries that have been in serious conflict over time. And the Bible foretells that just such a personality will arise in Europe and bring order out of chaos—though at enormous cost.