The CBS Jean Monnet European lectures: European values – and American

1. The CBS Jean Monnet European lectures:European values – and American Christian Fich Center for the Study of Europe, CBS cef.ikk@cbs.dk

3. Values apart? • After 9/11, Europeans declared “We are all American” • Prior to the invasion of Iraq, Europeans demonstrated that the war was “Not in our name” • An increasing feeling in Europe that European core values differ from American values • Stereotypes regarding Americans taken as evidence of profound differences in values and outlooks • The same applies to American stereotypes about Europe

4. Kagan: Paradise and Power • Strong and weak states use different strategies: • Strong states used power based strategies (ex: military force) • Weak states use ”strategies of the weak” (ex: international law) • In an anarchical international system weak states fear to become victims. Strong states fear to be bound by rules • USA and Europe have changed places: • USA has adopted power politics while Europe avoids it • This is due both to historical experiences and systemic factors (unipolarity)

5. The new European reality • Europeans have broken away from Hobbes’ anarchical world and into Kant’s eternal peace, a cooperating postmodern world • America is from Mars, while Europe is from Venus • This only possible because of USA’s continued protection of Europe (through NATO) • Europe’s new mission civilisatrice is to advocate the European model • American power – and willingness to use it – represents a threat to this mission

6. The rebirth of Europe? • The antiwar demonstrations prompted Habermas and Derrida to write an open letter calling for a rebirth of Europe • This new Europe should be based on the following values: • Secularism • Pluralism, social solidarity, and the “civilizing” force of government • Moral sensibility (opposition to death penalty) • Supranational cooperation • These values were presented as European and by implication non-American

7. Europe as not-America ? • Long tradition for anti-Americanism in Europe: • Zoologist Georges de Buffon (1749): America a continent, where everything is small • Abbé Raynal (1770): America a continent, which degenerates all living things • America is to some an image of extreme liberalism and something un-European: • ”American conditions”, “American model” • Fear of “Americanization” (and globalization) • Fear that cultural values will be undermined

8. Is there such thing as a European identity? • According to Fernandez-Armesto, there is no European identity, which characterizes all Europeans and them only: • No clear geographical demarcation • No ethnic or linguistic demarcation • No religious community • No political community • No real common history

9. No clear geographical demarcation • Europe’s borders have throughout times been defined rather arbitrarily: • Ural no firm limit – and anyway arbitrary • Where in the Atlantic Ocean does Europe end? (Fog over the Channel...) • Mediterranean has historically united people more than divided them (Greeks have more in common with Turks than fx with Danes)

10. No ethnic or linguistic demarcation • ”Native” Europeans have different ethnic roots with different cultures • The linguistic diversity is even larger • Not just different languages, but also different families of languages • Immigrants have become national citizens (or guest workers); this has not lead to increasing Europeanization

11. No religious community • Christianity originally imported from the Middle East • Has never covered all of Europe • In Europe it became divided into rivaling churches • The expansion of Christianity to other parts of the world has ”de-Europeanized” it • Immigrants have brought other religions with them • Europeans have anyway become secular

12. No political community • The ”democratic” principles of the Antiquity where not European as such • Modern democracy rather an American than a European invention • Europe was democratized quite late • No real European political parties • Capitalism not exclusively European and was anyway soon exported (especially to the US)

13. No common history • Athens and Ancient Greece was not just European • Europe’s history characterized by strife and division rather than community • Colonization was not a European, but an Atlantic project • Only the Enlightenment can claim to be a common European project, but it soon dissolved into nationalism and state centrism • European civil wars became World Wars

14. Europe as a construction? • The image of a common history is partly constructed • Yet the “European” exists as contrast to the non-European • Europe as a political project created top-down • Therefore only weak political legitimacy • The social solidarity still missing (Polish plumber)

15. EU = European identity? • Prior to the European Community, European identity was largely an abstraction • The establishment of a European institutional framework (ECSC, EEC, EU) has given European identity a political frame and geographical borders • Neo-functionalist approach allowed the elite to concentrate on the economical project (ECSC, EEC) • Therefore European identity frequently linked with EU-identity rather than pan-European identity

16. EU as the project of the elites • No public calls for the unification of Europe • With the Maastricht Treaty, the political dimension came in the forefront with a timid attempt at creating the basis of a European identity (EU-citizenship) • The project for a European Constitution was to be the affirmation that this European identity was on solid ground (preamble) • Yet no European dream, no European TV-channel, no European football team

17. Eurobarometer (2004) • How European do we feel? • 47% national and European • 41% only national • 7% European and national (3% only European) • Great differences between the nations • Brits generally most skeptical • Danes quite positive toward both Europe and Denmark • Hungary schizophrenic: 64% see themselves as only Hungarian, yet 87% proud of being European • Turkey interesting: 72% answer only Turkish, 96% proud of Turkey, 42% not proud of being European

18. Is it possible to create a European identity? • Is there the necessary cohesion? • Europe’s history marked by interaction • This interaction has not been exclusively European, but has had common references • The myth of the common European past is also a reference • Is there the necessary homogeneity? • Europeans and European states are not alike – but they still differ from others – and also from America • Unity in diversity • Most likely a hybrid identity or overlapping identity