BERLIN — Europe’s situation in 2024 is difficult, even dangerous. In Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war of aggression, an effort to wipe the country off the map and annex its territory, is entering its third year.

BERLIN — We are living through eventful, one might even say “wild”, times, with history being made at a fast and furious pace. Why is this happening now? Because three great transformational crises have befallen humanity all at once.

BERLIN — The post-1945 era of global stability is over and gone. From the bipolar world of the Cold War to the American-dominated unipolar world that replaced it, we have long benefitted from a sense of strategic order.

 BERLIN — Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Europe has undergone a radical transformation.

BERLIN  —  We are witnessing an unprecedented confluence of major and minor crises.

BERLIN  —  It is a common human prejudice to believe that everything was better in the past. But this bias rarely stands up to scrutiny, and perceptions of past Franco-German relations are no exception.

BERLIN  —  Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine is an attempt to turn back the clock to a time when Russia was a superpower that dominated Eastern Europe. Yet in what amounts to an effort to change the outcome of the Cold War, Putin has badly overestimated his capabilities.

BERLIN — The world is reeling from an extraordinary confluence of crises, including Russia’s war of aggression in Europe, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, sweeping trade and supply-chain disruptions, inflation, food insecurity, and all the morbid symptoms of climate change.

BERLIN  —  I cannot recall a time during the past 75 years when there has been such a massive accumulation of major and minor shocks.