Valdai Club

Confidence is even more essential to democratic policies than to economies, and nothing destroys a people’s confidence in its way of life more than the impression that democratically elected officials are incompetent. To export representative democracy without knowing how to handle its fine, contradictory structure, is to reproduce on a planetary scale the self-destructive mechanisms of representative systems of the 20th century without being able to handle them afterwards, writes Andrea Bianchi.

While Europe hesitates and tries to cover its northern Baltic flank, the south is left to fend for itself in the absence of strong, forward-looking, and far-reaching policies, writes Andrea Bianchi.

Recent developments show that today’s configuration is relatively more homogeneous than in the past. At least, the situation is clear between west and east: refineries and oil depots aside (they are more widespread in Cyrenaica), the current distribution of power between two blocs seems to exemplify Libya as it was a hundred years ago. However, a striking difference compared to the late 19th century is the absolute void left by the Italian presence alongside the incursion of Turkey, Andrea Bianchi writes.