Five ways Europe is reviving the 1930s

4. A Crumbling System of International Cooperation

The failure of free societies to lead has consequences. Specifically, it opens space for more nefarious forces to step in, and makes it impossible to uphold the norms of the international political and economic order. The 1930s demonstrated that the League of Nations was not an effective instrument to maintain the international rule of law. The organization failed to stop Italy’s aggression against Abyssinia, Japan’s invasion of China, and Hitler’s and Mussolini’s support of nationalists in the Spanish Civil War. The Great Depression was also marked by a failure of international economic governance, as leading Western nations resorted to protectionism.

Needless to say, the free societies of the West have done little to protect Ukraine or Georgia against Russia’s aggression. And while trade barriers have not destroyed a common European market, the ongoing refugee crisis in the EU provides an even more striking example of the failure of international cooperation. Because border protection and the processing of asylum requests in the EU has been left to the individual member states, the inflow of refugees into the EU has become a common problem.

Instead of a unified European response—welcoming refugees—EU member states are re-introducing border controls, marking the end of the freedom of movement within the EU. Needless to say, the refugee crisis brings about other disturbing parallels. In 1938, a Daily Mail headline warned Britons of “German Jews pouring into this country.” Switch the country and the religion, and the headlines today are eerily similar.