In a development that underscores the potential for a significant intellectual shift within the European Union, the Council of the European Union’s Library featured an essay by former Italian major general and political analyst Giorgio Spagnol, titled “A Brave New World: United States, Russia, China, India … and Europe” in its official Think Tank Review of October 2025. The article, published on Sept. 17, 2025 on the website of the European Institute for International Relations (https://www.ieri.be/en in Brussels, reflects many ideas of the Schiller Institute and is well worth reading. The EU Think Tank Review is a monthly selection of analyses designed to shape the thinking of EU policymakers, revealing which ideas are considered important.
Spagnol’s main thesis is that we are at the end of Western hegemony. After five centuries of Western dominance, the world is entering a new era—in which Asia, led by China and India, reclaims its historical centrality, referencing the ancient Silk Road. The post-1991 unipolar moment was a strategic miscalculation by the United States (and, by extension, Europe), where the pursuit of control through NATO expansion, sanctions, and military interventions has eroded the West’s legitimacy in the eyes of the Global South.
