Identities and Structural Change since the End of the Cold War: Germany, Europe, and the Limits of Integration

Abstract

The future of European integration is inextricably linked with the continued anchoring of Germany to EU multilateral structures. The institutionalist faith that integration will continue to accommodate diverse perspectives and goals through incremental reform is questionable. Rather than the new agenda of expansion and constitutionalism, older issues of sovereignty and national identity most constrain further development. This analysis shows that European integration is at a crossroads, compelling governments to make ever more painful choices between national and European identities. Structuralist and constructivist insights lead to the conclusion that the greatest tensions facing Europe arise from the old problem of embedding Europe's most powerful actor, Germany. Integration may not be able to produce a new balance between the institutional developments necessary to embrace Germany and the national sovereignty states want to preserve. Yet for Germany to remain solidly anchored in Europe's multilateral institutions, integration must move towards greater Europeanization of the nation-state. The question is how much Europe everyone must accept in order to sustain a political order that effectively embraces Europe's most powerful state.