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The new war in Europe?

19/03/2013

The European Union was founded in reaction to what I call ‘old war’ – the wars of the twentieth century. Even though material interests ought logically to lead to increased political cooperation, contemporary European politics, or the absence of politics, suggest instead the possibility of what I call a ‘new war’.

Ulrich Beck, in his wonderful book German Europe to be launched at LSE on Thursday, says that Europe was founded not on the logic of war but on the logic of risk. The European Union, he points out, is based on a lot of ‘nots’. It is not a nation, not a state and not an international organisation. States were built on the logic of war.

 

The European Union is a different kind of polity constructed in reaction to the risk of war and now, in reaction, to the risk of economic collapse. Economists argue that the monetary union was a big mistake in the absence of political union. But Beck points out that the point was just the opposite – to create a monetary union that would establish material interest in political union. Without a monetary union there would be no momentum for political union.

 

So far so good. But there is more to this story. In to-day’s Europe, economic and political logics are pulling in opposite directions. It is true that monetary union dictates the need for political union and everyone understands this at élite levels. But the consequences of monetary union and the neoliberal agenda with which it was associated is, at one and the same time, undermining what is known as the permissive consensus and greatly weakening the legitimacy of European élites and with that the European project.

 

The European Union was founded in reaction to what I call ‘old war’ – the wars of the twentieth century. Even though material interests ought logically to lead to increased political cooperation, contemporary European politics, or the absence of politics, suggest instead the possibility of what I call a ‘new war’.

 

This idea that economic co-operation would lead to political co-operation was a central tenet of European integration from the beginning. The founders of the European Union believed that through what was known as ‘low politics’, ‘high politics’ would follow. Economic and social co-operation would bring people together and this would lead eventually to a political union. And during the first three decades after World War II, this argument did appear to have some merit. The so-called Monnet method involved cooperation on infrastructure (coal and steel), agriculture, as well as regional assistance. And small steps were taken in the direction of greater political co-operation.

 

But after 1989, all this changed. On the one hand, this was the high point of the post-1968 cosmopolitan movements – ‘freedom’s children’ as Beck calls them. The coming together of peace and human rights and the end of the Cold War led to a new wave of Europeanism. On the other hand, it was also the coming of age of neo-liberalism. The same critique of the rigidity, paternalism and authoritarianism of the state developed by ‘freedom’s children’ was used by the right to argue for more markets – deregulation, privatisation and macro-economic stabilisation. ‘Freedom’s children’ had taken social justice for granted and in reacting against the old left had opened the space for the new radical right. The 1991 Maastricht Treaty can be regarded as a contract between the new wave of pro-Europeans, championed by Jacques Delors, and the new marketers epitomised by Margaret Thatcher.

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