Europe's ‘Division’ over the war in Iraq

Abstract

The profound political crisis within the EU and across Europe before and after the US-led war in Iraq is due primarily to the policies of governments and not diverging views among European publics. Among the majority of EU and European citizens the sense of belonging to Europe is well developed. For this reason the division of Europe over Iraq, aggravated as it was by the resounding French and Dutch ‘No’ votes with regard to the EU Constitution, has not resulted in any irrevocable setback or the division of the continent into two rival camps. The degree to which the EU has truly accelerated the growth of a truly European ‘identity’ among its members' peoples, however, remains unclear.