In this episode of The Dialectic, Editor-in-Chief Atul Singh and retired CIA officer and Senior Partner at FOI Glenn Carle explore a provocative question: Can Germany and France make Europe great again? The discussion traces Europe’s transformation from the fall of Constantinople in 1453 through the Renaissance, the Reformation and the Enlightenment to emerging as the driving civilizational force in the world. Europe gave birth to modern science, capitalism and democracy, allowing this tiny continent to dominate the world for nearly 500 years. The two geopolitical analysts go on to examine the collapse of European dominance because of the two world wars, decolonization and the rise of American hegemony. They also look at Europe’s postwar recovery and the formation of the EU thanks to Franco-German cooperation and attempts to form a supranational entity in the post-1991 world after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the rise of China. Today, Europe faces new tests: demographic decline, mass immigration, economic stagnation and political fragmentation. The hosts discuss whether France’s centralizing vision and Germany’s federal model can ever align, and whether the EU can act as a coherent global power in an era shaped by the US, China and Russia. Combining history, geopolitics and philosophical inquiry, this episode of The Dialectic also examines whether Europe’s forthcoming story is one of yet another revival or irreversible decline.