In this episode of The Dialectic, Editor-in-Chief Atul Singh and retired CIA officer and Senior Partner at FOI Glenn Carle explore a provocative question: Can Germany and France make Europe great again?
The discussion traces Europe’s transformation from the fall of Constantinople in 1453 through the Renaissance, the Reformation and the Enlightenment. These movements gave birth to modern science, capitalism and democracy, allowing Europe to dominate the world for nearly 500 years. The duo then explores the collapse of that dominance through world wars, decolonization and the rise of American hegemony, before turning to Europe’s postwar recovery through the European Union, the Eurozone and Franco-German cooperation.

Today, Europe faces new tests: demographic decline, mass immigration, economic stagnation and political fragmentation. The hosts debate whether France’s centralizing vision and Germany’s federal model can ever align, and whether the European Union can act as a coherent global power in an era shaped by the United States, China and Russia.

Combining history, geopolitics and philosophical inquiry, this episode of The Dialectic examines whether Europe’s story is one of revival or irreversible decline.