Cairo Review Special Report: “Trouble in Europe”

The latest edition of the Cairo Review of Global Affairs is featuring a Special Report: “Trouble in Europe”, which surveys the continent’s deepening social, security, and political crises. In the lead essay, “Crisis of Identity,” French sociologist Michel Wieviorka examines the Brexit campaign and anti-European Union sentiment, warning of the danger of nations retreating behind their borders. “Europe has not forgotten its wars of religion, or the major military and nationalist clashes of past centuries,” writes Wieviorka, “The resurgence of identity issues expresses the continent’s impotence in the face of its social and economic ills.”Peter D. Sutherland delivers a passionate argument for multiculturalism in Europe in his essay in the Spring 2016 edition, titled, “Our Great Migration Challenge.” Sutherland, the UN secretary-general’s special representative for international migration, writes, “We must now demonstrate not merely our humanity but our belief in the equality and dignity of man and seek in our own society to integrate with the strangers in our midst.” In other essays, Catherine Wihtol de Wenden offers alternatives to the security-driven approach to the European refugee crisis; Pascal Blanchard explores the history of France’s Muslim immigrants and their marginalization; and Emmanuel Todd asks whether France’s “Je Suis Charlie” declarations represented an admirable defense of press freedom or an outburst of xenophobia in a country that has lost its way. In his essay, “Fantasies of a Middle East Envoy,” Ahmad Samih Khalidi questions the thesis of former U.S. peace negotiator Dennis Ross that the U.S.-Israeli relationship is “doomed to succeed.” In “A Call for Arab Diplomacy,” former Egyptian foreign minister and current dean of the School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at The American University in Cairo, Nabil Fahmy, argues that more robust statecraft is required for long-term stability in the region. Fahmy, writes, “Active Arab diplomacy will be a determining factor in whether the Arab awakenings are a success or failure.” To read “Special Report: Trouble in Europe” and other essays in the Spring 2016 edition of the Cairo Review, go to www.thecairoreview.com. The Cairo Review of Global Affairs is the quarterly journal of AUC’s School of Global Affairs and Public Policy (GAPP). The journal is available online at www.thecairoreview.com.