The European Anarchy: Europe's Hard Road into High Politics

The European Union is a "union" in name only. In reality, it is an anarchy because it has no governmental authority. As long as it remains unable to move realistically toward high politics, it will continue to be a community of only low politics.

The two key aspects of high politics - security and money - are analyzed in the European context, revealing the hollowness of the common foreign and security policy as well as the fragility of the EMU. Any leap into twenty-first century high politics for European society will require a completely new conceptualization of political union. In particular, Holm foresees a potential conflict arising from the role of the USA as the continuing guardian of the European peace and that of the dollar as the dominant international currency. The enlargement with twelve more countries makes it imperative to develop a political complement to the European project of economic integration.

Erik Holm closes with trailblazing suggestions to such an innovative polity, ushering in a European empire with a composite emperor, an empire that leaves the nation-state room to breathe.