BWC members Heidi Crebo-Rediker and Douglas Rediker recently wrote in Foreign Affairs on why Europe risks missing a critical moment for reform. They argue that European leaders have long understood the economic and institutional changes needed to strengthen the European Union and enable it to act as a global power. Yet political constraints within member states and the EU’s consensus-based decision-making process have repeatedly stalled meaningful progress except in moments of crisis.

The author warns that Europe made a risky bet by waiting for crises to force action, and now faces an even greater danger: wasting a crisis by failing to act as it unfolds. With longstanding vulnerabilities exposed and the stakes for Europe’s economic and strategic future rising, the article makes the case that political will—not policy knowledge—remains the missing ingredient.

To continue reading at Foreign Affairs, click here.

All views expressed by members are their own and not reflective of the views of the Bretton Woods Committee.