Europe's shaken belief in stability

Looking back over 70 years of post-war history, most Western Europeans would conclude that political instability is something that happens somewhere else. Now, however, following the Brexit vote in Britain, a referendum upset in Italy and the prospect of untested populist politicians coming to power elsewhere in Europe, a mood of uncertainty has gripped the continent.

Europeans look warily across the Atlantic to assess the possible consequences of a Donald Trump presidency and toward Asia, where the rising power of China has surpassed that of the old continent.

We have short memories, of course. The post-war era was not quite the steady ride toward the golden uplands that is now recalled by those who yearn to go back to it. In the early 1970s, the Western world was facing the economic consequences of an oil price shock that quadrupled the cost of energy and stalled a period of rapid growth. In Europe, Spain and Portugal were still run by anachronistic dictatorships, while a junta of incompetent colonels was in power in Greece. Germany and Italy were threatened by domestic terrorism of the left and right, and even in sedate old Britain a group of superannuated officers and spies plotted a military coup against the Labour government of the day.