Why Europe Will Run the 21st Century

by Mark Leonard
HarperCollins UK, Fourth Estate
February 21, 2005
220 pp.

Foreign Rights Sold:
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Those who believe Europe is weak and ineffectual are wrong. Turning conventional wisdom on its head, Mark Leonard, one of the UK’s most visionary thinkers, argues that Europe is remaking the world in its own image.

Europe only looks dead because it is seen through American eyes. But America’s reach is shallow and narrow. It can bribe, bully or impose its will anywhere in the world, but when its back is turned its potency wanes. Europe’s reach is broad and deep., spreading its values from Albania to Zambia. It brings other countries into its orbit rather than defining itself against them, and once countries come under the influence of its laws and customs they are changed for ever.

This book sets up a challenge: to regard Europe not as a tangle of bureaucracy and regulation, but as a revolutionary model for the future. We cannot afford to forget that Europe was founded to protect us against war and that it is now key to the spread of democracy. Why Europe Will Run the 21st Century addresses Europe’s place in the world, looks to the past and the future and argues, provocatively, that it can and will shape a new and better world order.

Quotes and Reviews:
’Mark Leonard has done that rare thing; he has reshaped how we look at the world ... This is a refreshing, compelling and above all optimistic book that moves the European debate onto wholly new ground. British Eurosceptics beware.’
Will Hutton, author of The State We’re In

‘Mark Leonard’s views are always adventurous and stimulating – and “Why Europe will run the 21st Century” sustains those attributes. It also confirms that, in useful contrast to the unilateralist ‘New American Century’ doctrine of US Republicans, Europe’s contribution to the era will be multilateralist. In the age of increased globalisation and intensified interdependence, that has the strength of common sense.’ Neil Kinnock

‘Mark Leonard is one of the bright young thinkers on foreign policy. Here he lays out a provocative challenge to all those Europsceptics -- on both sides of the Atlantic -- who think old Europe’s day has passed. Whether you agree or not, you cannot ignore this book.’
Joseph S. Nye, Jr, author of Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics


‘Blazed a trail as a media savvy, energetic, original thinker.’ New Statesman

‘One of the most important influences on British Foreign Policy.’ The BBC

‘The moderniser’s moderniser.’ The Times

‘One of the most influential young men in Britain.’ The Express

“Not many books about the European Union are fun to read. This one is; and, more than that, it tells the political story of the EU better than any other I know. This is not a surprise from Mark Leonard, who is something between an infant prodigy and an enfant terrible in the world of foreign affairs. When he was running the Foreign Policy Centre their parties were the only ones worth going to. (...)
Book Review by Robert Cooper, 27 February 2005

About the author:

Mark Leonard founded the leading independent think tank The Foreign Policy Centre at the age of 24, under the patronage of the British Prime Minister Tony Blair. It has had a huge influence on policies both of national and international government. When he was only 23, Mark wrote the famous pamphlet, Rebranding Britain, coining the phrase ’Cool Britannia’. He has written regular commentary for all the leading newspapers and magazines, has presented the BBC Analysis programme, and has appeared as a commentator on CNN and on all of Britain’s most prestigious news programmes (from Today and Newsnight to the Jimmy Young Programme and Start the Week). Mark was named by the Sunday Times as one of the 500 most influential powerful people in Britain. He is 29 years old.


http://www.cer.org.uk/about/leonard.html