New Perspectives on the International Order by Bertrand Badie

Author:Bertrand Badie
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
ISBN: 9783319942865
Publisher: Springer International Publishing

The European Union’s Lost Opportunities

The European Union could have taken advantage of the end of the Cold War and bipolarity , which had closed it off in an Atlantist mindset and given it limited leeway. For the first time in history since the dawn of modern times, Europe was no longer the world’s battlefield. It was no longer experiencing internal military tensions, as had been the case for so long, from the Hundred Years War to the Second World War ; it was no longer in an adversarial situation with the Soviet bloc. And yet, not only was it not able to seize this breath of fresh air, but it showed the world all its weaknesses right after the fall of the Wall.

It all began with the difficult German reunification—even if its economic dynamism succeeded in deflecting attention from the episode—and with the botched integration of the former people’s democracies, which finally got the better of budding European diplomacy. And yet the latter had proven itself at the end of the last century. At several summits (Venice, Seville, Berlin), Europe had expressed itself very clearly on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and it was hoped that it would play a part in that difficult resolution. But in 2003, far from presenting a unified front regarding the US invasion of Iraq , it was the victim of a structural disagreement between its old and new members, between the Franco-German alliance and a bloc composed of the former people’s democracies—preparing to join the Union—and the countries moving in Great Britain’s circle.

This disintegration of European diplomacy—which had barely taken off—touches on a key point: Europe was still suffering from its inability to find its place in the world. At first, the European adventure was in a way “introverted.” It was intent on putting an end to its own internecine wars, and the rest of the world was only taken into account incidentally. With decolonization , Europe discovered the South through cooperation agreements (the Lomé Peace Accord in 1975 and the Cotonou Agreement in 2000) which perpetuated its ambiguous status: power in the world or power whose purpose was still to dominate the world? Similarly, Europe never succeeded in finding a constructive mode of coexistence and cooperation with the major emerging countries , in particular BRICS .

The other failure of European construction was the result of its management of internal transformations. In the aftermath of the Second World War , the European dynamic was governed by the very simple and beautiful idea of avoiding any more wars and of playing the partnership card in order to do so. It was not a matter of abandoning state sovereignty , but of creating a form of partnership powerful enough to make any new conflict impossible. Since then, Europe has had to deal with the shock of globalization . Here again, the partnership reflex has worked to a certain extent. Indeed, Europe remains the foremost player in world trade, in front of the United States. Yet from the moment

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