Abstract
Europe is a very particular place. It is not appropriate to call any place the center of the
world as the Earth is a globe. However, the course of history has made Europe the center of
the world. This has been so since the late 18th century (if not earlier) until now. Europe is
situated in the center of the world, yet it is very close to its periphery. Indeed, seeing through
geopolitical glasses, the concepts center and periphery have, and at the same time beget,
particular meanings.
Europe, or better said Western Europe, is part of the hegemonic West. It is part of the
economic, political and military hegemonic bloc called the West. It is disputable whether or
not (Western) Europe is militarily hegemonic. Nevertheless, being part of the North Atlantic
Treaty Organization (NATO) and a primary military ally of the United States of America
(USA) makes it part of the dominant West. This may sound typically old-fashioned as it
echoes the Cold War discourse. However, it is not old-fashioned, as it is the reality of the day.
Again, more than two decades after its formal termination, the realities of a Cold War
between the West, let us say NATO and its allies, and the East, let us say Russia and its allies,
is more relevant than ever before. There is, however, one important difference: the opponent
of the West in the previous century was the Soviet Union, but is now its core state the
Russian Federation, allied with a few of the other former Soviet republics.
European security analysts should seriously regard homegrown extremism as a bigger threat
than any threat from the Middle East. However, they should also be alert and seek to ensure
that terrorists, couching themselves as refugees, do not enter the European soil. The chance
of a terrorist attack by these ‘fake’ refugees may be small. However, they may play a crucial
role in further radicalizing the home-grown radicals and even recruit them for the wars in
the Middle East. A horror scenario would be that a network gets established between
terrorists in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and elsewhere that can circulate and operate
both inside and outside Europe.
