Podcast / Europe & Central Asia 05 January 2021 1 minutes War & Peace: Europe Has Much to Prove in 2021 This week on War & Peace, Olga Oliker and Hugh Pope are joined by former French Ambassador to the U.S. and the UN Gérard Araud to discuss today’s big geopolitical challenges – and Europe’s role in defining them – as President-elect Biden takes the reins in Washington. Share Facebook Twitter Email Linkedin Whatsapp Save Print S2 E9: Europe Has Much to Prove in 2021 With the international system in major flux as we turn the page on 2020, Ambassador Gérard Araud believes one main thing is clear: 2021 opens a new, more dangerous chapter. A Crisis Group trustee who represented France on the world stage for over three decades, most recently as ambassador to the United States (2014-2019), Araud gives Olga Oliker and Hugh Pope a decidedly sceptical take on the state of power politics, describing destabilising international rivalry, leaderlessness and a descent toward the law of the jungle. Together they also touch on why Brexit has only just begun its destructive path, how the impact of COVID-19 is accelerating the surge in nationalism testing Western societies and how the interlocking crises in the Eastern Mediterranean reveal where the European Union’s strengths and weaknesses really lie. Ambassador Araud does highlight one hope: that the urgency of transnational risks, particularly on the question of climate change, could propel a multilateral coalescence around ways to address them. Click here to listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. For more information, read Ambassador Gérard Araud’s weekly column in Le Point. Related Tags More for you Podcast / Hold Your Fire! (Season 2) Podcast / Horn of Africa The Horn (Season 3)