Engineering Escape Velocity - A 5 year Plan for Europe

This three-part Reckoning series began with a question about what China’s history, including its 19th-century failures and its 20th century successes, can teach Europe about its 21st-century moment of crisis. China failed to adapt to geopolitical changes in the 19th century and that mistake gave rise to a century of humiliation. China learned from that failure and is now a superpower.

Part 1: The Search for a Stable Orbit and the Mathematics of Human Survival

The fourth article in the European Reckoning series. Following on from:

The Rape of Europa: Sovereignty, Security & The Ethical Tech Opportunity

Overview

The era of American security guarantees, which formed the bedrock of European stability since WW2, has transitioned into a “three-body problem” of unstable unpredictable gravitational interactions between Washington, Beijing, and Brussels. The war in Ukraine has accelerated Russian decline and it has been drawn closer to the Chinese geopolitical mass.

Geopolitics, Technology, and Democratic Governance

The third article in the European Reckoning series. Following on from:

Europe United ? - The union is born

The Rape of Europa (c. 1560-62), Titian

Introduction

Europe is in great danger, it faces a moment of profound vulnerability (Titian ’s ‘Rape of Europa’ seemed apt).

The second article in the European Reckoning series. Following on from:

Europe Is On The Menu

Introduction

Do you remember where you were when the union of Europe finally began?

It wasn’t in 1957 or even 1993.

It was the 27th of February 2025: the day that President Zelenskyy of Ukraine went to the White House and was ambushed live on TV1 by some mafia thugs. Terrorists in suits.

The first article in the European Reckoning series.

“**I’m here today to directly and unambiguously express that stark strategic realities prevent the United States from being the primary guarantor of security in Europe. ”**1

US Secretary of Defence, February 12, 2025.

AI Podcast Version

I have also created an AI podcast version (if you are interested in trying it out):