The Crusades: An Arab Perspective - Part 3: Unification

In the third episode of 'The Crusades: An Arab Perspective', we explore how Salah Ed-Din unified the Muslim states and recaptured the holy city of Jerusalem from the crusaders.

Start of a Beautiful Friendship?
THE FIRST POST: A union of Europe and America might stand up to China, but how realistic is it, asks PHILLIP BLOND

For the first time in several hundred years the West is on the losing side of history. This is the thesis of Edouard Balladur, the former French Prime Minister who in a recent essay argues that "history is starting to be made without the West and perhaps one day it will be made against it".

The 78-year-old statesman believes that Western values are so threatened that the only way to defend global democracy and the rule of law is for the US and the EU to consider a real political, economic and cultural union.

Like many he fears that the West is in cultural decline and unable to face the challenges that confront it. America and Europe, economically stagnant and unable to innovate and prosper in the face of Chinese and Indian economic success, face new shared dangers in Islamic fundamentalism, and the rise of hostile independent states such as Iran and Russia.

For Balladur, the West must undergo a revolution in thinking and come together and defend its common values in the face of unprecedented global threats.

This is more than the delightful delusions of an aloof French aristocrat. These ideas are taken seriously at the highest level. Nicolas Sarkozy is certainly listening: the current President of France, a close confidante and political ally of Balladur, is intrigued by the prospect of a renewed Western project with France at its centre.

Moreover, the British elite have long been seduced by the idea of a transatlantic free-trade pact. While Angela Merkel, the German PM, wants to extend the traditional trans-Atlantic military alliance into new cultural and economic agreements based around common values and beliefs.

Looking at it objectively, Balladur expresses unmistakable geo-political truths. The age of Western dominance is clearly over. America may still be a superpower but within a generation it will be equalled by other nations both economically and militarily. Opinion: Start of a Beautiful friendship? >>> By Phillip Bond

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
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