The World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, is usually fixated on the future. Most years, the attendees are dazzled by some country, company or technology promising to burst forward, force change and dominate the next decade.

This year, Ukraine dominated the event and it plays into a growing sense of uncertainty about the world that we are heading into, a world of multiplying risks. In all this gloom, though, Fareed Zakaria says there is one distinctly hopeful sign. Europe is acting with a greater sense of unity and purpose than ever before.

The most lasting legacy of this time of crisis could be a new role for Europe as a more purposeful strategic actor on the world stage.