Note: despite being the NYT, this article isn't terrible. Merely facile.The risk of European disintegration looks significantly more real this week. Multiple crises, each a symptom and cause of the continent’s deepest problems, are converging simultaneously.
Britain took a step toward leaving the European Union, and Scotland toward independence. The far right is expected to do well in Dutch elections. And a growing feud between the governments of Turkey and the Netherlands reveals both the difficulties of keeping Europe together and the forces that could pull it apart.
Alone, these are not enough to break apart Europe, which has endured worse. But they represent larger forces that, given enough such crises, could do just that. This week’s events, then, pose something of a test of whether Europe can overcome or at least manage its problems — or whether those problems are enough to unravel the post-World War II order.
Here is an overview of those crises and why they matter.
More:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/13/world/europe/brexit-dutch-scotland-ireland-geert.html
