Wednesday, July 8, 2015
J210 (13 rue de l'Université)
This paper takes the Ukrainian crisis as a starting point to address
David Mitrany's charge that regional integration will only reproduce the
problems of the territorial state on a higher level. As the Ukraine
debacle has testified, Mitrany's fears were not unfounded, as part of
the problem was the effect of drawing new boundaries at the eastern
borders of the EU'S sphere of influence. The EU thus has failed the
litmus test of being a normative power in Ian Manners' definition of
transforming the international society, and it has not managed to extend
it supposed post-territorial character to its external policy. In this
paper, I want to trace the discourses of identity, territoriality and
European governance within the EU, in which such new bordering policies
are situated. In particular, I will argue that the effects of the
borders of the internal market are often underestimated. I will then
take up the challenge of envisioning alternative forms of articulating
regional identity and territoriality. I will do so both theoretically by
drawing on the peace modelling literature, and empirically by
demonstrating that the EU, in the past, had indeed been more creative,
even vis-a-vis Russia, when it came to dealing with border issues.
David Mitrany's charge that regional integration will only reproduce the
problems of the territorial state on a higher level. As the Ukraine
debacle has testified, Mitrany's fears were not unfounded, as part of
the problem was the effect of drawing new boundaries at the eastern
borders of the EU'S sphere of influence. The EU thus has failed the
litmus test of being a normative power in Ian Manners' definition of
transforming the international society, and it has not managed to extend
it supposed post-territorial character to its external policy. In this
paper, I want to trace the discourses of identity, territoriality and
European governance within the EU, in which such new bordering policies
are situated. In particular, I will argue that the effects of the
borders of the internal market are often underestimated. I will then
take up the challenge of envisioning alternative forms of articulating
regional identity and territoriality. I will do so both theoretically by
drawing on the peace modelling literature, and empirically by
demonstrating that the EU, in the past, had indeed been more creative,
even vis-a-vis Russia, when it came to dealing with border issues.
