How Europe Survives: The Adaptability and Resilience of a Continent in Peril

Public lecture from Dr. Catherine de Vries (Vice Dean and Professor of Political Science at the School of Politics, Economics and Global Affairs at IE University, Madrid)

Europe is often cast as lurching from one near-death experience to the next, from the eurozone crisis and Brexit to a pandemic and war on its borders. And yet, it endures. Not because it has resolved its contradictions, but because it has adapted through them. Challenging the familiar image of the European Union as fragile or intrinsically flawed, How Europe Survives reimagines Europe and its strengths.

In this talk Catherine E. De Vries will reframe Europe as a living organism: imperfect, evolving, and responsive to its environment. That messiness is part of its strength. Like an organism, the EU survives by improvising, recalibrating, and absorbing internal tensions and external shocks. Its strengths lie in its malleability and flexibility, which enable it to constantly reinvent itself. It does so both in moments of crisis and in its normal functioning.

It provides a reinterpretation of Europe's past and a guide to its future. This is not a triumphalist story. Europe's adaptability has costs and limits. But it offers a practical lesson for governing in an age of permanent crisis: flexible institutions, open contestation, and a willingness to learn can keep a political project alive.