Discussing EU policy and leverage in its Eastern neighborhood, Knaus argues that the EU should support the democratization of all of its eastern neighbors. For the people of these countries to be able to choose their future, the EU should oppose Russian interference and blackmail in its neighbors. The continental fault-line today is between societies that aspire to defend and respect the values of liberal democracy, and those who do not. Theories of civilization have nothing to do with this, he underlines. Knaus recalls that defending their “civilization” was a rhetorical device used by autocrats and nationalists of all ethnic groups and religions in the Balkans to justify ethnic cleansing, repressing minorities, and suppressing basic rights of their own citizens.