"Europe's lack of global ambitions makes for excessive reliance on America and makes the American public more skeptical of Europe. Once the center of global innovation and economic dynamism, today Europe lags behind not only America, but also Asia. The absence of a wider vision of Europe’s global role -- not to mention the widely shared European view that assuring global security is largely an American obligation -- intensifies narrow aspirations for privileged status for some states, and complacent expectations by self-indulging states of generous bailouts from the more disciplined members of the Union."
Zbigniew Brzezinski, "Keynote at Globsec 2013" (28.4.2013).