After the end of the end of History What Europe should learn from the Ukraine crisis for its foreign relations. Four lessons and a ceterum censeo.

This paper intends to take a step back from current developments in Ukraine in order to analyze the lessons Europeans ought to draw from the crisis that caught many by surprise. It identifies four issues Europeans need to address in that respect. Whether the Ukrainian crisis really turns out to be a »game changer« in a structural sense remains to be seen, but it has made clear that Europeans should rethink a number of fundamental assumptions underlying European foreign policy.

In that sense, the Ukrainian crisis may potentially be a trigger for a process of “strategic maturation”, offering an opportunity to make significant steps toward a European culture of strategic foreign policy making that will allow Europe to overcome some of the obstacles standing in its way when it comes to playing a decisive role in international politics.

Published as Genshagener Papiere 15, December 2014.