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Security arrangements in Europe have undergone a period of rapid transition since 1989. The demise of the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Treaty Organization (WTO), the rise of a unified Germany, the movement towards a common foreign policy in the European Union (EU), and the triumph of Western liberal values has been much noted on both sides of the Atlantic. Much is made of the new uncertainties of the post-Cold War world in the popular
media and in more specific academic debates. On the eve of the twenty-first century, Europe was said to be returning “back to the future,” going back to the dark days of old-style balance of power politics. As the forthcoming analysis reveals, however, the new Europe is essentially characterized not by cold, dark, classical realism but instead by transnationalism, democratization, interdependence, and multilateral cooperation.
Traditionally the EU has been a “civilian power” concerned with welfare generation and economic regulation.1 As an international actor, the EU is ambiguous. The EU has always, and inescapably, been a foreign policy project, but that does not mean that it is cast in the constraining mold of the statist version of foreign policy.2 The Union’s status as a kind of “great experiment” has clearly affected both the wider Europe and the international arena through processes of emulation and diffusion. One only has to think of the copies of the EU’s common market; NAFTA, ASEAN, and Mercosur bear witness to the
broader influence of the EU in world politics.
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