Readers’ Letter: “East European Nations Are Losing Their Identity to the Autocratic West”

Here is an unchanged essay from F. Andrew Wolf, Jr. about why and how the East European nations are losing their identity to an “autocratic” West. Do you agree with the author?

The eastern states of Europe have eluded the “Bear” only to be ensnared by the seductive lure of Europa. And the “Nymph” is intent on keeping them in her grasp.

The “Wall” was torn down 35 years ago; for the sake of Eastern Europe and its future it needs to be reassembled, on its western border.

Eastern Europe has troubles, and while some are internal, a fair measure of them are not. These externals are all driven by powerful political forces seeking to fulfill their own political agendas–and for the latter that’s about control–economic and political.

The attempted assassination of Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico may not be an isolated situation. It may be, as some have suggested, a sign of instability in the political regimes of Eastern Europe. This could portend that stable democratic institutions have not been achieved in the region. Moreover, it could further point to the failure of the central focus the West set for itself after the Cold War: to stabilize (meaning democratize) the countries formerly under the influence of the old Soviet state. Dissatisfaction with political decisions should not lead to assassinations of prime ministers, if democratic institutions are stable. In Slovakia, this may not bode well for its future (Pantarhei, “The end of political stability in Europe,” September 21, 2022).

But the Fico incident could also reflect something potentially more sinister at work.
And this could be a valid premise especially when external forces in the country want a political regime in power more amenable to the designs of the West.

Certainly, the assassination attempt is not an isolated occurrence end

emic to just one region or state; instances like this have happened in more than a few European cities in recent years – from the former balkanized republics of Yugoslavia, Serbia, to northern countries like Sweden and Holland (Reuters, “Killings and attempted assassinations of leaders in Europe,” May 15, 2024). And history evinces how the West is not immune to the dark side of politics. US presidents McKinley, Lincoln and Kennedy all fell to such malevolence, and Reagan barely survived the ordeal.

But the efforts to subvert the US, tragic as they were, were the product of specific circumstances endemic to domestic politics in the US at the time. They were of little import to the broad sweep of history. If history is our guide, however, an attack on a president or prime minister in Eastern Europe can, and has, led to serious regional, and potentially international, crises.

But, as has been alluded to, the troubles in these countries are not all internal; they have become a battleground for powerful external forces seeking to exert a measure of control in them. And this occurs because East European countries are not sufficiently stable, historically, to keep in check foreign economic and political influence . They have not yet achieved a critical mass in the experience and expertise required of “nation-state building.” The latter requires acceptance by the vast majority of the
populace as to the importance of creating and respecting democratic institutions. For a state, without the latter, protecting itself and its citizens is impossible. The question is:

Can these countries succeed as democratic nation-states, given the external economic and political forces which plague them?

There is something striking about the reaction to the attempted assassination of Prime Minister Fico. In the European press and other Western centers of power the first comments made were not over local or even regional concerns; rather, they were about history–the history of an empire and the summer of 1914. Western political pundits immediately correlated the incident with the assassination of Austrian Archduke Ferdinand in Sarajevo, which triggered a series of reciprocal agreements precipitating the outbreak of the First World War. But it could also reveal something deeper, perhaps a signal that Eastern Europe, itself, is viewed from a historical perspective with its roots being grounded within empires (El Pais, “Robert Fico, or the unpredictable consequences of assassinations in Europe,” Guillermo Altares, May 16, 2024).

Perhaps, history is where politicians in the West turned to first, because they know that what happens in these states is not strictly an internal matter. And history illustrates what can happen when foreign elements are at work fomenting unrest. Powerful external forces, as was the case historically, are forever busy. Thus what happens in these states is often beyond their control. Their destiny is often influenced if not controlled or even determined by other more powerful nation-states with their own political agendas. And the latter are about control.

Prime Minister Fico has apparently survived the attack and will hopefully resume his duties as health permits. But resuming his responsibilities could be perilous when foreign elements consider East European states merely a means to further their own global agendas. We are referring in this instance to the United States and its British allies, for whom their concerns with Russia and China take precedence. Beyond their rather shortsighted Anglocentric view of foreign relations, the worth of each state or region is predicated upon its utility in their aim of global hegemony. Foreign affairs is based on how other countries can be used like pawns in a “chess game” that has little to do with what is in the interest of these politically vulnerable East European countries.