“A new age of empires: we risk falling apart if we don’t defend ourselves,” said Carlo Calenda, secretary and Member of the European Parliament for Azione, on the sidelines of a press conference held during the presentation of his book in Brussels, *Defending Freedom: Europe’s Hour*. “We are in a new age of empires: the United States, Russia, and China have made dismantling the European Union their fundamental foreign policy objective. It seems that, deep down, no one realizes this or says so openly; no significant or forceful action is being taken. And we are simply letting things slide, forgetting that Europe is the best place to live in the world—and perhaps that is something worth defending.”