Ten years ago, Project Europe looked like a resounding success. A reunified Germany stood at the core of the world’s second-largest market, the European Union—an economic giant of 27 countries, many of which shared a common currency, the euro. Citizens of the EU were free to live and work in any member nation, and controls across most borders were light. For a time it looked as if the EU had achieved what Francis Fukuyama described as “the end of history.”
But Project Europe’s future looks a lot less rosy now. Worries over immigration, brought to a boil by the refugee crisis, have contributed to a general resurgence in right-wing nationalism. All this is exacerbated by a persistent, regionwide depression that has triggered a series of sovereign debt crises and contributed to…
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Harvard Business Review (Digital) - 1 Issue, September 2016