Andrew Moravcsik

Now more than ever, it's not smart to bet on the EU's demise.

How crisis will make the EU stronger.

EU democracy is doing just fine.

This is the summer to visit Munich, as the dynamic metropolis celebrates its 850th birthday with two citywide parties. On July 19 and 20 and Aug. 1 to 3, roads and bridges will be closed and illuminated, with events—including concerts, plays, art exhibitions, extreme-sports competitions and historical re-enactments—set up on outdoor stages and other venues across town.Now is the time to take in the city's culture.

Don't believe the hype: Beijing's military buildup isn't as scary as it seems.

The year ahead offers the perfect chance to remake transatlantic relations.

China's growing military and economic power has become something of an American obsession. Recent books, like "Red Dragon" or "The China Threat," combined with warnings from Washington—like the Pentagon's designation of China as an emerging "peer competitor"—have contributed to an abiding sense of fear.

When Tony Blair made his valedictory rounds last month, one of his most remarkable stops barely got any notice. On a short stay in Libya, Blair declared British-Libyan relations "completely transformed" and announced a $900 million oil- and gas-exploration deal between BP and the Libyan government.

Politics stops at the water's edge. Or so voters in the Western democracies like to believe. When our security is at stake, we expect elected leaders to think coolly and strategically, advancing the national interest.Iraq has done much to discredit such hopes.

American Alone. While Europe Slept. Menace in Europe. As the European Union celebrates the 50th anniversary of its founding Treaty of Rome, the pundits agree: Europe is in terminal decline.

The line for the Metropolitan Opera snakes around the corner. A white-haired society woman clad in velvet rushes in out of the winter rain, passing out-of-towners clutching handmade need a ticket signs.

Riots in Hungary? Rising anti-Europe sentiment across Eastern Europe? A resounding "no" to a new constitution in France and the Netherlands, and similar sentiment elsewhere?

When opera lovers dream of summer festivals, their minds turn naturally to Old World spots like Verona, Salzburg, Bayreuth, Glyndebourne or St. Petersburg.

Recently I attended the Brussels forum, a new Davos-like event organized by the German Marshall Fund. The idea was to bring Europeans and Americans back together after all the insults traded over Iraq.

Mozart has overtaken Beethoven, the favorite son of the 19th century, as the most admired composer in the history of Western music. He has the most recordings.

Just over a year ago, author Jeremy Rifkin predicted that Europe would soon overtake the United States as a model for the world. The so-called European Dream--a coupling of the national social welfare state with multilateral cooperation in Brussels to promote free markets and common regulations--would supersede the American Dream.For true believers in that vision, 2005 was a dispiriting year.

Forget the debacle that was Europe's constitution. The EU is finally getting back to what it does best: solving concrete problems. Proposals from homeland security to regulatory reform are grinding forward.

It looks like Rwanda!" the stunned British anchorman couldn't believe he was seeing the United States. "Remember shock and awe?" wrote the columnist for the London Guardian, Polly Toynbee.

Political life has ground to a halt. Pundits and politicians can't stop talking about it. Yet more and more, it seems, ordinary folk want nothing to do with it. "It," of course, is the European Union's proposed constitution, likely to be rejected in France on May 29 and perhaps also in the Netherlands on June 1.

The U.S. model: For years, much of the world did aspire to the American way of life. But today countries are finding more appealing systems in their own backyards

Not long ago, the American dream was a global fantasy. Not only Americans saw themselves as a beacon unto nations. So did much of the rest of the world. East Europeans tuned into Radio Free Europe.

The new year will bring new faces to the administration in Washington, as well as a new European Commission in Brussels. Hopes for a warmer relationship are rising on both sides of the Atlantic.

Those in Brussels who dream that their new leader will be a powerful figure in the mold of Jean Monnet or Jacques Delors were thrilled, for a time, with Jose Manuel Barroso.

Hundreds of thousands of American tourists flock to Ireland every year seeking ruined castles, green fields and friendly folk. On his presidential visit to the Emerald Isle, Ronald Reagan raised a beer in a local pub.

Europeans seem to agree on nothing these days, except their dislike of the European Union. Begin with the European Constitution, likely to be adopted at the Dublin summit this week.

Of the 2 million fans who will attend an opera in Europe this summer, one third will visit a single spot: the ancient Roman arena of Verona, where the performances are crowd-pleasing ("Aida," "La Boheme"), the stagings monumental, the casts strong, the sound clear and the setting incomparably romantic.

The big bang has gone off. Now is the time for second thoughts. Among newcomers and old-timers alike, politicians are scrambling to reassure skeptical electorates that May 1 will bring no harmful changes.

Fifteen years after the fall of the Berlin wall, Enlargement Day is coming. This being Europe, there is diversity in how to celebrate. Slovenia will station traditional accordion players at its border crossings.

Eurocrats are pointing fingers at Spain and Poland for sinking the Brussels summit. They might just as well have directed them at Germany. Superficially, the acrimony involved voting rights and whether to stick to the deal reached at Nice three years ago.

The British conservatives have become the party of serial regicide. This week the Tories will seek their fourth leader in six years, after sacking Iain Duncan Smith before he even contested a national election.The poor man didn't deserve such a humiliating fate.