Free people in the world are looking to Europe to lead.

So argues, Jean-Noël Barrot, French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs who gave a talk at the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University yesterday. Barrot is right. The United States can no longer claim to be the leader of the free world while it suppresses freedom among its adversaries abroad and at home. He even quoted the mathematician-philosopher Blaise Pascal: “Justice without force is powerless. Force without justice is tyranny.”

One of Barrot’s predecessors, Hubert Védrine, once labeled the United States a hyperpower for its unrivaled economic and military strength in the post-World War II era. Americans like to think of freedom as the main cause of this strength. Indeed, it sustained growth and saw the fall of the Soviet Union. However, and as Barrot rightly reminded his audience, at the same time the United States could claim to be the world’s lone superpower at the turn of the century, China was beginning its steady climb on the global economic front, freedom be damned. China’s growth in the military front now seems likely, if not inevitable, to rival the Americans.

Barrot challenges this singular vision of geopolitics today as rivalry between the incumbent superpower and the rising (or returning) superpower. Europe is refusing to choose between these two blocs, according to Barrot, and is instead charting a third path by building on its democratic strengths. In this way, the world will turn to Europe.

Barrot left beside the actual likelihood of China fully eclipsing the United States in military power or the plausibility of a multipolar world especially in terms of economic relations. His focus instead was on democracy and the role Europe will bring to bear on it as a stabilizing force.

It would be aspirational to think of Europe as the world’s beacon of democratic stability and strength. However, the challenge to reaching this goal ignores the importance of multipolar democracy. Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India, Japan, and many other nations across the world might not individually rival the United States or Europe for their economic power. They certainly do not in terms of military power. But they do offer other havens of democracy that neither the United States or Europe seem particularly sure of maintaining right now.

The same Europe that has basked in over eighty years of peace and stability may not be as peaceful and stable as we would like to think. The moderator, the esteemed statesman and professor Jean-Marie Guéhenno, quickly pointed to the wave of nationalism across the continent as an example. If that were not enough, the Russian war in Ukraine and the Trump administration’s hostile stance toward NATO and most European allies suggest it is time for EU member states to finally get serious about building a common defense policy.

The development of European sovereignty, as Barrot argued, is an important step to reach that goal. However, it will rely not only on national budgets if they can afford it but also on rebuilding democracy both within member states and across the European Union’s institutions. As part of that process, it will be essential to give voice to a democratically-elected European leader to speak on behalf of Europeans. Too often, we hear France speaking for Europe instead of speaking with Europe. It would be refreshing to hear how Europe will one day be a stalwart of democracy—the world certainly needs it—coming from Brussels rather than Paris.