The Old World Order is Dying – and Europe with It?

It is January 2026. Anyone casting a glance at Europe’s position in the global headlines sees a continent held in a vice. In Ukraine, the Russian army continues to bombard critical infrastructure; across vast swathes of the country, people freeze in sub-zero temperatures without electricity, whilst the West wrestles with its own divisions. On the other side of the Atlantic, Washington is creating facts on the ground: the USA has intervened in Venezuela, kidnapped Maduro, and is unabashedly demonstrating its imperial power. It seems the Americans have tasted the blood of the international order and are now reinforcing their claim on Greenland. Trump even intends to underpin this with tariffs: Anyone who stands in my way will be punished. Shortly thereafter, the World Economic Forum takes place in Davos. The world’s VIPs meet. Many are on edge: How will the US President react? Will he continue to threaten violence against allies?

In the midst of this drama, the EU Commission publishes its strategy—its strategy against racism. A post on its social channels reads: “Racism has no place in the EU.”

Otherwise, the EU Commission continues to do what it does best: it expresses “concern” and “monitors” about the situation closely, while insisting on international law—a term that, on the geopolitical stage outside of a handful of states, serves only as a punchline for jokes.

Yet anyone hoping that the self-declared patriotic opposition might defend European territory — or at least our honour — will be even more disappointed. Instead of remaining sovereign, the AfD does not even know whose neck to throw itself around first — Putin’s or Trump’s. Thus, a Maximilian Krah effectively declares Greenland to be American and declares himself ashamed of German solidarity with Denmark. It is the sorrowful spectacle of a pseudo-patriotism that pretends to preach civic values and autonomy but practices submission.

Twilight of the Idols

This grotesque scenery at the start of 2026 makes one thing unmistakably clear: the time for illusions is over. We Europeans stand alone—betrayed by former allies like the USA, beset by enemies both internal and external. The old world order is dying; its certainties are being swept away by the inexorable march of history, which seems oblivious to any concept of an “end”.

For years, Europeans rested upon a stable international order. The motto was: the world shall be united by trade and, in case of doubt, pacified jointly with the USA. Now, American weapons are suddenly pointed at Europe, and international trade is lately causing job cuts even Germany too.

For decades, Europe operated under two dominant paradigms, both of which are morally and politically bankrupt today. On the one hand, there is the rootless, often woke universalism of the left-liberal elites. Their naive belief in international institutions, diplomatic balance, or quite generally in Kant’s “Perpetual Peace”, has ultimately disarmed Europe: against the whims of Washington and Russia, but also against political Islam. The mass migration to Europe, which destabilises us and endangers our social cohesion, would not have been possible without the dogmatic belief in the interchangeability and insubstantiality of cultures. The idea that distinct civilisations have fundamentally different interests—as Samuel Huntington attempted to explain in his time—was even decried as racism.

Now, Huntington’s concept of a multipolar world is reality, and no one is laughing at him anymore.

On the other hand, one finds the reactive nationalism mentioned at the beginning, as seen in right-wing populists from the RN to the AfD and Fidesz. It seeks refuge in a romanticised past, back when everything was still in order. When the USA were still the “good guys”. When the West still accounted for the majority of the global economy. This ressentiment-driven movement possesses neither the scale nor the calibre to meet the realities of the 21st century. Unfortunately, we can now see all too clearly where these anti-intellectual movements lead: in America, the Fed Chair is politically persecuted for not lowering interest rates, and Hungary is now the most corrupt and impoverished country in Europe. Out of stupidity, opportunism, or both, this neo-retro “nationalism” behaves in a decidedly treacherous manner: they view their nations merely as appendages of foreign great powers, to whom they must curry favour.

Unite or be Colonised

Both paradigms weaken Europe. Both have thrown the gates wide open to the Russian and American empires. With either path, Europe is no longer sovereign. With either path, the self-determination of European peoples dies. One thing is clear: on the geopolitical chessboard, the fragmented nation-state is merely a solitary ant, to be trampled and plucked apart by giants. At the same time, the current ideological paradigm of European, liberal, or global institutions is incapable of maintaining our civilisational integrity. And this is not due to the EU: against mass migration and Islamisation, the small nation-state appears to offer no solution in any form, as Great Britain has had to learn since Brexit.

What, then, must be done to save our sovereignty, our self-determination, our civilisation—indeed, our Europe?

The situation seems hopeless, and our elites evidently clueless. The “smallest Grand Coalition of all time” [in Germany] spoke only recently of the “last cartridge of democracy”; now, after the grandly announced “summer of reforms”, there is still no tangible change in the spring. Whether one likes it or not, the current situation demands a Promethean drive for action.

The New European Federalism

In this twilight of the old order, a new, vital European paradigm is forming. Our movement, Ave Europa, stands not merely for a political movement, but for the avant-garde of new ideas. We must transcend the false dichotomy between globalist dissolution and nationalist isolation.

Our vision: A European Civilisation State. A federalisation of Europe to overcome the weaknesses of individual states. But on what basis could one unite countless languages, cultures, and worldviews? Many ask: Would such a union not disintegrate immediately?

Europe possesses a common civilisational foundation. We are culturally united by our shared heritage and our canon of values, born of Greek philosophy and Roman statecraft, influenced by Christianity and the Enlightenment. Furthermore, our history welds us together through shared historical achievements, such as the overcoming of Communism and the Iron Curtain. We Europeans are united in our belief in the rule of law, in liberal democracy, in the principle of subsidiarity, in dialogue, and in the orderly transfer of power. It is precisely the geopolitical situation that shows Europeans, with brutal clarity, how much we truly have in common—and how little we share with our enemies.

Europe is a Schicksalsgemeinschaft (a community of shared destiny), which must now also become a political community on the Swiss model if we wish to preserve our sovereignty. In 1291, the three original Swiss cantons of Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden joined together pragmatically to protect their ancient liberties against the Habsburg King. Similarly, today we want a Europe that protects and preserves local, regional, and national characteristics, and therefore unites for the purpose of maintaining the freedom of every single member.

Many doubt that such a unification is possible. Yet history teaches us: what seems impossible today is inevitable tomorrow. The sceptics of European unity resemble those experts of the 1860s who believed in the “Main Line” and claimed that Catholic Southern Germany and Protestant Prussia would never unite. In 1871, Bismarck proved them wrong. Necessity is the mother of action.

There are many who wish to unite Europe. On the one hand, for example, there is the progressive party Volt Europa, which has celebrated some respectable successes in major German cities and sits with the Green Party in the EU Parliament. On the other hand, there are the well-known Eurocrats like Draghi, Letta, Delors, and Verhofstadt, who have always favoured European unification.

What is missing, however, is a movement that seeks to unite Europe from “below”; a Europe that takes the worries and needs of ordinary people seriously, specifically the concerns regarding migration and our culture. The culture carried by the ordinary citizens of Europe is not some random product of history, but the necessary foundation of our free social order. We are the generation ready to seize the window of opportunity that the crisis has thrown open, to democratically build a federal Republic of Europe based on the Swiss model.

A Civilisation Worthy of the Name

Why do we allow ourselves to be pushed around on the world stage?

Anyone who wants European civilisation to survive, and not end as a footnote in Chinese, Russian, or American history books, must rethink. It is time to cross the Rubicon. Europe must now dare the most difficult steps toward unity: A European army capable of defending the continent against Russia without America. A common border police force that does more than escort refugees into Europe. A common legal system for companies, so that our start-ups can scale quickly and become world market leaders.

Only if we unite can we preserve and defend our way of life: against political Islam, against self-destructive wokeism, and against multipolar threats. We are the generation of Europeans traumatised not by World War, but by the weakness and dependency of today’s Europe. We dream of a Europe that lives up to its potential, of a Europe unafraid to use its power to assert its interests in the world. United, we would not merely be a museum of past greatness, but a leading power of the world—with a military larger than the USA and an economy more potent than China.

It is time to become equals. It is time to rise on the world stage and stand up for ourselves. It is time for Ave Europa.

This article was first published in German as a guest commentary by Nikodem Skrobisz and Octavian Posta for Cicero Online. The original can be read here: https://www.cicero.de/aussenpolitik/die-alte-weltordnung-stirbt-und-europa-mit-ihr-es-braucht-weniger-brussel-und-mehr-schweiz