The careful approach may have brought as pretty far. But isn't working anymore. It hasn't worked since 2008 at least.
Other than the defense part, the same could be said for the US.
Rosy in comparison to 1976~2000 - no
I'm under the impression it's been (sort of) proven (but I have no source) that the major reason for 'college kids complaining' is precisely because of the perceived loss in quality of life, purchasing power and access to {healtchare, safety, community, third spaces} when compared to prior generations
It could be that the major reason for 'college kids perception of loss in quality of life' is that the rise of ad-driven media, as opposed to the previous generation's subscription model, leads to more sensationalized news to drive clicks. Combine that with online forums (echo chambers) that make it easier to complain to a sympathetic audience. College kids are also more susceptible to recency bias, they didn't live through previous times of uncertainty and have no memories of cold wars or the turbulence that previous generations lived through.
The harvest looks very likely to increase all else being equal. How it is distributed and how the farm is managed in the future is another matter.
Russia isn’t in such a great place militarily either. It would be incredibly culturally strange for China to invade that far away and I don’t know that their military is configured for that anyway. They may influence and sabotage but would never attack Europe militarily IMO. Middle East and North Africa states don’t pose much of a threat still in an actual military conflict.
Who does that leave to defend against? America?
Maybe the criminal gangs, who already have capacity rivaling and sometimes surpassing European governments?
Or maybe killing, gang raping, shooting, bombing and looting is not an actual military conflict, because the soldiers don't wear uniforms, and thus nothing for the busy Europeans to mind.
If the will doesn’t materialise, well, that’s exactly what civilisational collapse looks like in the historical record.
Either way, I’m not really seeing the optimistic outlook for Europe.
In South America they do put in the military against criminal gangs. Why don't the Europeans? Especially considering that the criminal gangs there are predominately consisting of foreigners, meaning they are de-facto a military matter.