This is part of a series on the Ukraine Crisis.
Europe is a castle.
Where the wide plains of Asia strangle, stand its chiselled outline, its inner moat, its ocean-backed towers.
Europe is a castle.
An aggregate of shelters, propitious to resistance, where the hopes come to vanish of the empire and the tyrant.
Europe is a castle.
A monument of myriad memories, forged by tireless centuries, a motley mosaic of eras, styles, and dreams.
Europe is a castle.
A vertiginous testimony to human audacity, where the eyes of the world first met, like a sun born from its rays.
Europe is a castle.
And Ukraine is its rampart.
Pierre Haroche is a lecturer in International Relations and International Security at Queen Mary University of London. He has recently published a commented anthology of literary texts on the idea of Europe, titled Le goût de l’Europe (Mercure de France, 2022).
Published on May 16, 2023.
