Europe is navigating a complex period of profound change marked by democratic strain, geopolitical instability and renewed questions of identity and solidarity. These challenges were the core focus of the April 16 Keough School of Global Affairs Dean's Forum on Global Affairs event, "Europe in a Time of Rupture." The discussion featured Brigid Laffan, a leading scholar of European integration, and Rory Finnin, an expert on culture and identity in Ukraine.
In her welcome remarks, Keough School Dean Mary Gallagher stressed that these challenges are "not distant concerns, but urgent realities shaping Europe and the wider world, including the United States.”
Finnin began the conversation by referring to April 12 election results in Hungary, where long-serving prime minister Viktor Orbán was decisively defeated by Péter Magyar of the opposition Tisza Party. This victory, following similar election results in Poland in 2023, represented a rejection of democratic backsliding, Finnin said.
Laffan characterized the Hungarian election result as an "earthquake election" for both Hungary and Europe. While Orbán had used the period following the 2010 Eurozone crisis to silently capture and reframe the Hungarian state and society, his decisive defeat was a "massive societal rejection" of Orbán, she said, who failed to deliver economically and contributed to a "very corrupt state and society."
Crucially, Laffan said, the election results showed that authoritarianism operating within systems "scaffolded" by NATO and EU membership has limits. Because an EU member state cannot suppress political alternatives indefinitely, electoral defeat, rather than coercive regime change, is a more likely end for such governments. She concluded that the Hungarian result was a "major setback for authoritarians in Europe," putting leaders such as Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico in an "uncomfortable place."
Finnin and Laffin also discussed the threat to European security posed by an aggressive Russia. Finnin warned that Europe is under constant attack via Russian hybrid warfare, including sabotage of industries, targeted assassinations, and attacks on public infrastructure. He cited former NATO Secretary General George Robertson's recent warning: "We are underprepared. We are under attack. We are not safe. Britain's national security and safety is in peril.”
Laffan said that after decades of enjoying a "peace dividend" and viewing war in Europe as impossible, the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 was a "palpable shock" that forced Europe to confront the reality of the Russian threat. She differentiated the threat perception between the "front line" states — such as the Baltic states — who "have no illusions," and countries in the south such as Spain and Italy. Despite the slow response, Brussels and European capitals are now working daily to build defense and security capability, she said, aiming to be ready by 2030.
Laffan pointed to Ukraine as an extraordinary asset, noting that the country’s civil society has driven technological innovation, particularly in drone and robotic warfare. Furthermore, an EU-member Ukraine will be a “battle-hardened country with a very strong military," she said, ensuring Europe will not remain defenseless.
On Irish neutrality
Finnin asked Laffan about her native Ireland, specifically the tenability of its long-standing neutrality. Laffan described this stance as both a "disgrace" and a self-deception. She argued that Ireland's historical neutrality was only possible because it was geographically situated next to the "global imperial power" and was too costly to invade during World War II, a history that has led to a mindset that doesn't take defense and security seriously.
In reality, Laffan said, Russian naval spy vessels have been spotted in Irish waters patrolling areas containing vital communication cables, while the Irish Navy has only four sea-worthy vessels. Laffan highlighted the country's low defense spending (0.24% of its gross domestic product) and its military size of fewer than 8,000 individuals combined. She stressed that Ireland should cease debating joining military alliances, for which it is entirely unprepared and would not meet minimum NATO standards, and instead focus on cooperating with neighbors to secure the Atlantic seaboard.
Contesting the narrative of decline
Addressing the "amorphous, constantly shifting threat to the west from Washington," Finnin quoted a US National Security Strategy document claiming that the European Union "undermine[s] political sovereignty" and warning that if current trends continued, the continent would be "unrecognizable in 20 years or less."
Laffan confirmed that European capitals understand that the Trump administration is "no friend of Europe," and that the transatlantic alliance is fraying. She contested the U.S. narrative of decline, which is often predicated on the EU's slipping share of global gross domestic product. Laffan argued that if the top 1 percent of U.S. income earners are excluded, Europe is "just as rich as the U.S." and boasts a far stronger, more equitable distribution of income and welfare protection.
While acknowledging that Europe lags technologically and faces a major investment gap due to a cultural tendency to save rather than invest, Laffan disagreed with the idea of a European decline. She described migration as a "very challenging issue" and a political wedge, noting that the income gap across the Mediterranean and the weaponization of migration by Russia have led to a crisis of "hypermobility" that post-war refugee protection treaties were not designed to handle.
The ‘weird resilience’ of solidarity
The speakers concluded by discussing European solidarity. Laffan asserted that solidarity between EU-member states is robust, though thinner than that found in a nation-state. The first pillar of this solidarity is found in significant fiscal transfers, specifically cohesion funds, which transfer wealth from "core Europe" to poorer members like Poland and Ireland. Other pillars include free mobility, mutual support processes during crises, and the unity demonstrated during Brexit.
Laffan recalled that when the UK decided to leave the EU, 26 countries stood firm behind Ireland to prevent the re-establishment of a hard border that could have led to renewed violence. This demonstration of collective unity, Laffan said, illustrates what a recent Financial Times article described as the EU’s "weird resilience." The political system, "shouldn't work, but it does," Laffan said. “And it survives by certain norms. And also the one thing the EU never does is it never leaves the negotiation table.”
Laffan noted that current geopolitical crises are binding the system together, suggesting the EU’s true working motto, surpassing "unity in diversity," is what former Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi famously said about implementing the euro: "Whatever it takes."
The EU is a "tougher, more resilient political system than we think," Laffan said. “And it survives.”
Brigid Laffan is an emeritus professor at the European University Institute, the chancellor of the University of Limerick, and president of the European Policy Centre in Brussels. She is the author of “The EU's Response to Brexit, United and Effective.”
Rory Finnin, a professor of Ukrainian studies at the University of Cambridge, founded the Cambridge Ukrainian Studies Program. He is the author of the internationally acclaimed book “Blood of Others: Stalin's Crimean Atrocity, and The Poetics of Solidarity.” He is currently a visiting professor at Notre Dame’s Nanovic Institute for European Studies.
The Dean’s Forum event was presented in partnership with the Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies and the Nanovic Institute for European Studies, part of the Keough School of Global Affairs.
The Dean's Forum on Global Affairs is designed to bring world leaders into conversation with Notre Dame students, faculty and the broader community around current challenges shaping global affairs.
Watch: Deans Forum Brigid Laffan "Europe in a Time of Rupture"
Originally published by at keough.nd.edu on April 28, 2026.