Daniel Kelemen (Rutgers University) and Kathleen R. McNamara (Georgetown University)
In recent years, the EU has suffered a seemingly endless series of crises, yet despite these stark challenges, the EU remains a profoundly innovative and consequential form of political organization. Despite the far-reaching transfers of authority to the EU, the study of the EU continues to draw primarily on either international relations theories or on various institutionalist approaches. We argue that the development of the EU can be understood better as a process of state-building. In particular, we contend that attention to the two key variables that pushed forward the concentration of political authority, namely security threats and market building, helps account for the incomplete political development that has plagued the EU. The state building perspective both explains why the EU has developed in the uneven, highly legalistic manner that it has to date and why it will likely have to confront sensitive questions regarding the exercise of coercive force in the years to come if it is to develop much further.
