European Political Order Research Articles

The new NATO and collective security

While the Allies remain committed to collective defence, they have increasingly endowed NATO with new roles as an instrument of collective security in the Euro-Atlantic region. Elements of Partnership for Peace (PFP), the May 1997 NATO-Russian Founding Act, the stabilisation commitment in post-war Bosnia and other activities have raised new challenges for NATO's cohesion and effectiveness: how to give practical content to its vision of a peaceful political order in Europe; how to handle the hypothetical issue of eventual Russian membership in the Alliance; what meaning to attribute to vague 'security is indivisible' declarations and the Article 4-like security-consultation commitments offered to PFP members; and how to maintain collective defence in good order while assuming collective-security duties.

The new NATO and collective security

While the Allies remain committed to collective defence, they have increasingly endowed NATO with new roles as an instrument of collective security in the Euro-Atlantic region. Elements of Partnership for Peace (PFP), the May 1997 NATO-Russian Founding Act, the stabilisation commitment in post-war Bosnia and other activities have raised new challenges for NATO's cohesion and effectiveness: how to give practical content to its vision of a peaceful political order in Europe; how to handle the hypothetical issue of eventual Russian membership in the Alliance; what meaning to attribute to vague 'security is indivisible' declarations and the Article 4-like security-consultation commitments offered to PFP members; and how to maintain collective defence in good order while assuming collective-security duties.

Transcending the Nation‐State?: The European Commission and the (Re)‐Discovery of Europe

Abstract: This article examines the process of European integration from a cultural perspective. Taking up questions posed by social scientists and European Community (EC) officials concerning the possibility of transcending nation‐state and nationalism in Europe, it explores the European Commission's attempts to do this, particularly through the EC's campaigns and initiatives for forging a sense of European identity and culture at the level of popular consciousness. Following Hobsbawn and Ranger, I argue that the history of EC cultural politics provides an interesting case study of invented traditions and manufactured heritage. The political implications and problems of using culture as a vehicle for nation‐building at a pan‐European level are analysed. The article concludes with a critical appraisal of the concept of European identity and questions whether the EC's project for constructing a post‐nationalist political order in Europe is feasible or politically desirable.

Nordic Security Cooperation in a Homogenized Political Setting

Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden find themselves in a more homogenized political environment than at any time during this century. The different orientations towards the three corners of the `power triangle' which previously inscribed each state's security orientation have become less important. The way political life is structured and the way it interacts with other social structures is becoming more uniform. At the same time, the Nordic cooperation of the Cold War period has been enveloped in the wider EU-based European political order. This has caused a crisis in Nordic cooperation, and further aggravated the clash between integration from either friendly or hostile forces inside each country. Intensified security cooperation holds out two promises. Firstly, by inserting a legitimizing element into the growing internationalization of security policy, which is highly contentious, it may facilitate the further pursuit of internationalization. Secondly, security cooperation offers a distinctive new deal for Nordic cooperation generally.

The Politics of Identity and Political Order in Europe

AbstractThis article explores the link between identity, legitimacy and political order in Europe. The central argument is that the politics of identity have enormous salience in the new Europe and for the European Union at this juncture of its development, because the Union is moving from issues of instrumental problem‐solving to fundamental questions about its nature as a part‐formed polity. Problems of identity are raised by the politicization of immigration, the fragmentation of the post‐war order, regionalism, the revival of the ultra Right and the process of European integration itself. The article concludes with an assessment of the affective dimension of integration.

Theoretical Perspectives on European Governance

Abstract:The paper reviews some theories of social science which could contribute to the development of a concept of European governance going beyond traditional notions, such as federal states' or ‘international organisation’. The theoretical argument is based on the culturalist version of neo‐institutionalism, which stresses the role of ideas in the functioning and transformation of a political order. It is claimed that both globalisation and functional differentiation transform existing nation‐states and shape the emerging European polity. European governance is characterised as poly‐centric and non‐hierarchical. Finally, different approaches to the legitimation of such a polity are discussed. The paper comes to the conclusion that the emergence of a European political order is part of a process which could require a rethinking of basic social scientific concepts.

What War in Europe? The Implications of Legitimate Stability

Fear that war might occur between East and West in Europe persists even after Mikhail Gorbachev's dramatic announcement that the USSR would cut its armed forces by 500,000 men and reduce and restructure Soviet forces stationed in East Germany, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary. That fear has long been exaggerated. Such a war has been and remains a most unlikely eventuality for reasons only secondarily related to Gorbachev's effect on Soviet military doctrines and deployments. East-West relations in Europe are and have been for some time uncommonly stable. That stability represents a prudence that has existed even without reference to the promising new leadership of the Soviet Union under Gorbachev and the reforms that have been launched there, welcome though they are. 1 In the context of that prudence, no issues in Europe have threatened East-West war for decades and none seem likely to. Of course, the status quo is not necessarily engraved in stone for all time. Further tumult and change in the East European political order seem likely. All the same, the use of force by either side against the other has been ruled out by internationally agreed prohibitions and by restraints that have been well established

Arms Control and the European Political Order Compatibilities and Incompatibilities between the United States and Western Europe

Arms Control and the European Political Order Compatibilities and Incompatibilities between the United States and Western Europe

George Grant and Love: A Comment on Ian Box's “George Grant and the Embrace of Technology”

In his Reflections on the Revolution in France, Edmund Burke laments the death of the age of chivalry, with all its resonances of courtly love and the Holy Grail, and heralds the triumph of the sophisters, calculators and economists. Burke was one of the few who both understood and regretted the portentous changes that were occurring in the European political order. Nonetheless, Burke saw clearly that love (or, to use a word charged with Platonic significance, the erotic) was ceasing to be an important political force, and that a narrow rationality was replacing it. At the same time as the man of practical wisdom was announcing the tragic death of the old order, his great contemporary Mozart was preserving in his sublime music all that this order had, at its best, embodied.' But Burke was right, and in the politics and art of the succeeding two centuries2 love was increasingly trivialized to the point where it has become simply an emotion; for Mozart it had been, in contrast, the central fact of human existence. Grant's attempt to retard, arrest and reverse the triumph of the calculators lies at the heart of everything that he has written. He is, of our contemporaries, the supreme lover, the consummate erotic man. As with Mozart, love is not merely a theme in his work, it is the central subject. Lament for a Nation is revealed as a book about love in its

Germany As Number Two?: The Foreign and Economic Policy of the Federal Republic

The distinctions between politics and economics, and between domestic and foreign policy, have always been more blurred in the Federal Republic than in most other countries. At the same time, German decision makers have consistently used economic policy for political purposes, which explains why Germany's economic success is evaluated by Germany's allies as well as by its opponents mostly in political rather than economic terms. During the 1950s, there existed a striking correspondence between the principles of Germany's domestic economic order and the principles of the international economic order, which were guided by the United States and supplemented by the fledgling institutions of West European integration. These complementarities unraveled in the 1960s and 1970s, during a period when increasing economic and monetary interdependence was beginning to supplant, at least in part, such measures of power as military capacity. As a consequence, international elements of power were shifted in areas where the major sources of German capacity are located, creating opportunities as well as difficulties for the Federal Republic's diplomacy. Depending on the future evolution of the European political order, German economic capacity can be expected to remain an important component of the Federal Republic's foreign policy efforts.

Force Limitations and European Political Development

The article presents a political framework for assessing arms control regimes in Europe in the current phase of political transformations. Security in Europe consti tutes a developmental problem and should be viewed as a continuous process. Three aspects of the status quo are distinguished. The European security system constitutes the sum total of the North European, Central European and Mediterranean security zones. Arms control measures should be viewed as means for political reconstruction on the basis of the territorial status quo within the context of preserving the indivisibility of the peace in Europe. The article identifies eight assumptions regarding the political utility and functions of arms control in Europe. It concludes with a heuristic presenta tion of various building block approaches to a construction of an arms control infra structure for the political order in Europe.

Norwegian Security Policy: Options and Constraints

The structure and assumptions of Norwegian security policy in the context of the evolving political order in Europe and the codification of superpower relations are outlined. Attitudes towards the future evolution of NATO, and the competing perspectives which were brought to bear on security policy issues in the EC referendum campaign and its aftermath, are examined. The Norwegian security predicament is influenced directly by the naval competition of the superpowers. Norwegian defence policy is examined from the point of view of missions and force posture. Finally, the author discusses the role of arms control in Norwegian security policy.

Norwegian Security Policy: Options and Constraints

The structure and assumptions of Norwegian security policy in the context of the evolving political order in Europe and the codification of superpower relations are outlined. Attitudes towards the future evolution of NATO, and the competing pers pectives which were brought to bear on security policy issues in the EC referendum campaign and its aftermath, are examined. The Norwegian security predicament is influenced directly by the naval competition of the superpowers. Norwegian defence policy is examined from the point of view of missions and force posture. Finally, the author discusses the role of arms control in Norwegian security policy.