Europe is in an unprecedented state of flux. After decades of virtual inanition, the continent is being convulsed by a ferment of change and conflict; the overused cliché “seismic” is, for once, appropriate. This turbulence might not be instantly discernible to a visitor travelling across Europe: the public institutions of government appear to be functioning normally; there is little overt sign of upheaval; at the Berlaymont building in Brussels it looks like business as usual. Yet a traveller in Europe might have registered the same deceptive perceptions in June, 1914.