Europe's past as the world's future: What does this mean for the EU?

Abstract

The main  thesis of this paper: Europe's political past is the present and mosat likely the future of the world. THe most exported European idea - the concept of the nation-state and the notion of natzional sovereignty - has spread around the globe with all aspirations and abberations European countries have gone through in the past. Although there is no determinsm in human history, most features and structures of inter-state relations, the conceptual development of statehood and domestic cleavages European nation-stsates have gone through, can be found in the world today. This poses enormous challenges for the EU as the paper argues: either becoming a sovereign world power amon g power or become an object of others in a highly unstable world.