{"id":1494,"date":"2026-01-22T10:40:46","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T10:40:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/world-uncensored.com\/blog\/?p=1494"},"modified":"2026-01-22T10:40:49","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T10:40:49","slug":"the-eu-must-serve-as-a-beacon-of-righteousness-in-the-new-world-order","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/world-uncensored.com\/blog\/the-eu-must-serve-as-a-beacon-of-righteousness-in-the-new-world-order\/","title":{"rendered":"The EU Must Serve as a Beacon of Righteousness in the New World Order"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Opinion by Linus H\u00f6ller<\/em>*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Title image by Reddit user u\/JLXuereb<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The world has entered a new era, and those clambering desperately to the way things were before are doing so in vain. Among the chaos and violence of the new world order in the making \u2013 one strikingly alike the Kremlin\u2019s long-professed prediction of a multipolar world, where might makes right \u2013 one gleaming exception arises: the European Union.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The EU is far from perfect. But it is the best the world has to offer right now, and it serves as a stronghold of democracy and liberal ideals such as justice, rights and freedom in an increasingly hostile world. It finds itself at a once-in-history moment when it could replace the United States as the global normative lighthouse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Historically, it has been the U.S. \u2013 itself far from perfect but outwardly committed to a set of admirable and noble principles \u2013 that has held this position as the global arbiter of what is right and wrong and the setter of global standards. Not purely by virtue of the goodness of its ideas, of course; it was and still is by far the world\u2019s most capable military and was a victor in both world wars. But the bygone American dream and the values of liberty, justice, and prosperity associated with it by people around the world, along with a certain glamor and shine, unquestionably played an immense role in shaping the country\u2019s public perception and its ability to influence norms worldwide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The U.S. has abdicated this role.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alternative models and why Europe’s is best<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Alternative models exist. For one, there is the Trump-Kremlin style of authoritarian neo-fascism centered on ultra-conservative values, the ham-fisted power of weapons, and a corrupt, oligarchic state. Then there is the Chinese model, built on supercharged state capitalism and absolute control by a single party. It excels at building flashy things quickly (and arguably must do so to survive), but at the expense of all meaningful individual liberty and a social fabric.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The third way is for which the European Union stands. Europe is by far the most prosperous, livable and safe continent. The quality of life across the board is unmatched by any other region. The political consciousness \u2013 although challenged by an extremist right-wing fringe \u2013 is built on participation, predictability and, by and large, on morality. The rule of law is effective and just, protecting the rights of people as individuals and a collective, rather than serving to extend a shielding hand over unchecked capitalism or letting itself be instrumentalized for partisan causes. Government acts to protect consumers and make lives better in small but meaningful ways \u2013 no roaming fees, strong passenger rights with airlines and train companies, the right to live and work anywhere in the Union, strong privacy and data protection laws, and the list goes on and on. Europe is the unambiguous center of international justice and humanitarian law: The International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice are located here, along with several UN headquarters and offices, plus the Red Cross; bulwarks of arms control and disarmament like the atomic energy agency, biological and chemical weapons conventions are centered here. Europeans get free education and guaranteed, high-quality public health insurance that isn\u2019t tied to their job and that additionally beats many private plans in the rest of the world for coverage. European work-life balance is unmatched \u2013 the average salary in Spain, oft-mocked for its siesta culture, and South Korea, known for unforgiving working conditions and pressure, are similar. And Spain isn\u2019t even one of the richest ones on the continent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, there are people who suffer in Europe, too. To name just one category: Poverty is a huge issue anywhere it exists, and should be a public policy priority to eliminate. These challenges are real and urgent, but don’t negate Europe’s relative success in providing quality of life, and as such are not the focus of this piece.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We need to own our accomplishments<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

European governments, especially in recent decades, have been remarkably poor at communicating their successes to domestic audiences, let alone to international ones. But this needs to change to seize the moment. The world is leaderless in a moral and normative sense right now. Not Washington, Beijing and definitely not Moscow can fill this gap. The only ones who can are the Europeans, together with their close companions in places like Canada, New Zealand and Australia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The billions of people who used to aspire, in more or less real and realistic ways, to emigrate to the U.S. to benefit from all the promises of the idea of America haven\u2019t disappeared. They are a formidable global force. That Europe can take this place is evident in the millions of people who have sought to migrate to the continent in recent history. Europe is positioned like no other to offer an alternative model for the masses and the leaders of the world to aspire to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In some ways, this has already succeeded. For instance, Europe is a regulatory standard powerhouse. Taken together, the continent is, by some measures, the world\u2019s largest economy, and when Europe enacts standards and laws that protect consumers, much of the world follows suit either explicitly (by enacting their own similar laws, as is often the case for instance in California), or de facto (see the USB-C port on the iPhone, which was the result of EU action). It is also a global leader in climate action, both in talk and in action, a role that is increasingly a unique selling point at a time when millions of people are feeling the real, disastrous effects of global warming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now Europeans need to expand this into norms-setting power and stand up for their (liberal) ideals around the world, and use the sticks and carrots in their arsenal to encourage adherence to international law, norms and standards. This is not only the right and sound thing to do, as it will make the world a better place. But it is also crucial for self-preservation. Europe and its liberal democracy are safer in a world with other liberal democracies that it can cooperate and trade with and that will have its back as it has theirs. European countries have benefited greatly from the rules-based world order, and the EU, as an ambitious peacebuilding effort, is a direct result of people truly believing that international relations are not necessarily a zero-sum game and then acting accordingly. This flies right in the face of the might-makes-right types in Trump, Putin, Xi and co.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What needs to be done<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The continent, preferably collectively, must throw its whole weight behind supporting its worldview globally. History has shown that people tend to want to live in freedom and prosperity (shocker, I know). Europe is rich, powerful and influential and must leverage these fortunate attributes for the grand goal of centering it in global norms-setting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It needs to fund civil society and education. It must strengthen and make more resilient the democracies at home and those of its partners, sharing experiences and practices. It must push harder to export its consumer protections and expand the measures that positively affect everyday people, then take the credit for it. It needs to create, distribute and push propaganda (or public diplomacy, if that word makes you queasy) in favor of the rules-based world order and liberal project, both subtle and obvious. It also needs to stand prepared to apply said rules-based order equally to all players \u2013 no more measuring Russia and the U.S. on different scales for the same violations. It needs to reignite and channel a sense of aspiration toward a brighter, social democratic future. It must pound on the adherence to international treaties and find the guts to enforce them with all means necessary. It must be a bulwark of international arms control and disarmament efforts to make the world a safer place and build trust, while not being na\u00efve. Individual countries\u2019 diplomatic corps should leverage their special connections with parts of the global South to convince those countries of the value of siding with Europe over the alternatives. It needs to convince both with deeds and with words. It needs to ensure that its actions on the world stage benefit the people of the countries it interacts with just as much as Europeans. It needs to come to grips with how to deal with immigration pressures that will continue, and how to channel them in constructive ways that serve both the people seeking a better future and the continent they hope to find refuge in and contribute to. Europe must stand as a bulwark of reason and science (which in itself comes with huge benefits in attracting talent and economic progress). It must exalt education as something worth striving for and make it both financially attainable and cool, countering the anti-intellectualism emanating from the United States. It needs to fight that the concepts of freedom, justice and prosperity become the self-evident goal to strive for, and ideologies and models that run counter to it \u2013 American and Russian fascism, and even Chinese state capitalism \u2013 once again become justified pariahs on account of their demerits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All this to say: Europe must show by doing and by saying it explicitly that the liberal, democratic, European world order is the one for the people of the world to aspire to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The prime time to act is now \u2013 the clock is ticking, but it is not yet too late.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*Linus H\u00f6ller is a Berlin-based Europe Correspondent covering defense, security and geopolitics. An Austrian by birth, he has lived on four continents and in seven countries. He holds master’s degrees in international relations, nonproliferation and terrorism studies and a bachelor’s in journalism, political science and international studies. He also serves as an advisor for the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Opinion by Linus H\u00f6ller* Title image by Reddit user u\/JLXuereb The world has entered a new era, and those clambering desperately to the way things were before are doing so in vain. Among the chaos and violence of the new world order in the making \u2013 one strikingly alike the Kremlin\u2019s long-professed prediction of a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1497,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,332],"tags":[65,123,335,334,333],"class_list":["post-1494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe","category-opinion","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-multipolar-world-order","tag-new-world-order","tag-opinion"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t