Europe is living in a new ‘era of darkness,’ Finland’s Stubb warns

Europe is living through an “era of darkness” as multiple wars and competition between the U.S. and China trample the rules-based global order, Finnish President Alexander Stubb said Monday. Speaking at the College of Europe in Bruges, Stubb said the post-Cold War age has ended and the world now faces a pivotal moment, like those at the end of World War II in 1945 and the fall of communism in 1989. While he tends towards optimism, there are now “unfortunately, plenty of reasons to be pessimistic,” he told an audience of students at the institution, which Stubb himself attended in the 1990s. “In a sense, I began my studies during an era of light and you begin your studies in an era of darkness,” he said.