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7 After the deluge: Europe, the European Union and crisis in the world arena

  • Michael Smith
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The EU under Strain?
This chapter is in the book The EU under Strain?

Abstract

This chapter sets out to re-assess a number of arguments made in the past twenty years about the relationships between Europe, the EU and international order in the light of recent and current changes and crises within the world arena. Specifically, it starts from the emergence of an apparently new international and European order after the end of the Cold War, based on new forms of institutions, rules, negotiation and boundary-making and on new roles for key actors, including states and the European Union. It goes on to examine the key mechanisms underpinning this order, including the interactions between markets, hierarchies and networks and the impact of the EU as a ‘realist power’, a ‘market power,’ an ‘institutional power,’ and a ‘normative power’. The chapter then explores the challenges to this conception of European order in the early 21st century, emerging from power shifts at the domestic and European levels, the impact of economic crisis, the fragility of existing boundaries and the emergence of a multipolar or ‘interpolar’ world arena. Finally, it assesses the capacity of European actors, and, specifically, the EU, to absorb, divert or capitalise upon the ‘deluge’ of multiple crises that emerged during the period 2019-2022, and explores alternative future courses for the EU’s engagement with European and world order.

Abstract

This chapter sets out to re-assess a number of arguments made in the past twenty years about the relationships between Europe, the EU and international order in the light of recent and current changes and crises within the world arena. Specifically, it starts from the emergence of an apparently new international and European order after the end of the Cold War, based on new forms of institutions, rules, negotiation and boundary-making and on new roles for key actors, including states and the European Union. It goes on to examine the key mechanisms underpinning this order, including the interactions between markets, hierarchies and networks and the impact of the EU as a ‘realist power’, a ‘market power,’ an ‘institutional power,’ and a ‘normative power’. The chapter then explores the challenges to this conception of European order in the early 21st century, emerging from power shifts at the domestic and European levels, the impact of economic crisis, the fragility of existing boundaries and the emergence of a multipolar or ‘interpolar’ world arena. Finally, it assesses the capacity of European actors, and, specifically, the EU, to absorb, divert or capitalise upon the ‘deluge’ of multiple crises that emerged during the period 2019-2022, and explores alternative future courses for the EU’s engagement with European and world order.

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter i
  2. Table of Contents v
  3. List of authors ix
  4. Part I: Contextualising the EU and crises
  5. 1 Introduction: The EU under strain 1
  6. 2 Polity attacks and policy failures: The EU polycrisis and integration theory 27
  7. Part II: The legal and democratic fundaments of the EU
  8. 3 Crisis-driven EU reforms in and beyond treaty limits: Is it time for a treaty change? 51
  9. 4 What happened to the idea of ‘Ever Closer Union’? Differentiation as a persistent feature of European integration 77
  10. 5 The difficulty of upholding the rule of law across the European Union: The case of Poland as an illustration of problems the European Union is facing 95
  11. 6 Representation in polycrisis: Towards a new research agenda for EU citizens 115
  12. Part III: The EU in a changing world
  13. 7 After the deluge: Europe, the European Union and crisis in the world arena 133
  14. 8 EU enlargement in times of crisis: Strategic enlargement, the conditionality principle and the future of the “Ever-Closer Union” 155
  15. 9 The EU after Brexit: EU-UK relations and the latent crisis of withdrawal 173
  16. 10 A strained partnership? A typology of tensions in the EU-US transatlantic relationship 191
  17. Part IV: European policy fields shaped by crisis
  18. 11 Consolidating the fortress Europe: Conceptualizations of solidarity in the EU Asylum System governance post-2015 211
  19. 12 EU Health: From pandemic crisis management to a European Health Union? 233
  20. 13 Leader or laggard? Diversity and minority rights in a union under strain 253
  21. 14 The slow-burning climate emergency and the European Green Deal: Prospects and pitfalls in the polycrisis era 275
  22. 15 European economic governance in times of crisis: Solidarity, responsibility, and legitimacy in EU debt mutualisation 293
  23. Index 319
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110790337-008

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter i
  2. Table of Contents v
  3. List of authors ix
  4. Part I: Contextualising the EU and crises
  5. 1 Introduction: The EU under strain 1
  6. 2 Polity attacks and policy failures: The EU polycrisis and integration theory 27
  7. Part II: The legal and democratic fundaments of the EU
  8. 3 Crisis-driven EU reforms in and beyond treaty limits: Is it time for a treaty change? 51
  9. 4 What happened to the idea of ‘Ever Closer Union’? Differentiation as a persistent feature of European integration 77
  10. 5 The difficulty of upholding the rule of law across the European Union: The case of Poland as an illustration of problems the European Union is facing 95
  11. 6 Representation in polycrisis: Towards a new research agenda for EU citizens 115
  12. Part III: The EU in a changing world
  13. 7 After the deluge: Europe, the European Union and crisis in the world arena 133
  14. 8 EU enlargement in times of crisis: Strategic enlargement, the conditionality principle and the future of the “Ever-Closer Union” 155
  15. 9 The EU after Brexit: EU-UK relations and the latent crisis of withdrawal 173
  16. 10 A strained partnership? A typology of tensions in the EU-US transatlantic relationship 191
  17. Part IV: European policy fields shaped by crisis
  18. 11 Consolidating the fortress Europe: Conceptualizations of solidarity in the EU Asylum System governance post-2015 211
  19. 12 EU Health: From pandemic crisis management to a European Health Union? 233
  20. 13 Leader or laggard? Diversity and minority rights in a union under strain 253
  21. 14 The slow-burning climate emergency and the European Green Deal: Prospects and pitfalls in the polycrisis era 275
  22. 15 European economic governance in times of crisis: Solidarity, responsibility, and legitimacy in EU debt mutualisation 293
  23. Index 319
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