Finland's President Stubb: Europe has entered an era of darkness

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Europe is living through an “era of darkness” as multiple wars and competition between the U.S. and China trample the rules-based global order, Finnish President Alexander Stubb said Monday.

Speaking at the College of Europe in Bruges, Stubb said the post-Cold War age has ended and the world now faces a pivotal moment, like those at the end of World War II in 1945 and the fall of communism in 1989.

While he tends towards optimism, there are now “unfortunately, plenty of reasons to be pessimistic,” he told an audience of students at the institution, which Stubb himself attended in the 1990s.

“In a sense, I began my studies during an era of light and you begin your studies in an era of darkness,” he said. “We used to be able to say that the three biggest killers of mankind, disease, famine and wars, have been defeated. That is not true anymore. The light has given way to darkness.”

Stubb, who has studied and written extensively on geopolitical upheaval , has been intimately involved in European efforts to navigate U.S. President Donald Trump’s second term — particularly when it comes to the question of a peace deal for Ukraine.

He told his audience they would graduate into “a dog-eat-dog world” in which there are, by some estimates, 65 conflicts or wars playing out — “more than at any time after the Second World War.”

Global security will “depend on what the big powers — namely the U.S. and China — end up doing. Will they choose co-operation or confrontation?” he said.

“The key question for all of us is to create a European security structure which makes sure that Russia does not attack its neighbors again,” he said. NATO will remain a vital security alliance but new processes should also be developed, he said, including “confidence building” measures between Russia and Europe to build “trust.”

Stubb urged the audience of future diplomats, politicians and officials not to be pessimistic, but to be ambitious for a new “era of light,” despite the challenges. He said that in 30 years’ time, the European Union could grow to 40 member countries from the current 27 — including the U.K. rejoining the bloc alongside Norway, Moldova and Ukraine.