Word: european
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...continent for centuries. Judged by that measure - and notwithstanding the pathetic failure to prevent or quickly end the wars of the Yugoslav succession - the E.U. has worked out fine. For most of that time, its leaders have been happy to concentrate on domestic policies: a single market, a European currency, free movement of people. The E.U.'s defenders, moreover, would argue that in its immediate neighborhood, its success has had a "demonstration effect" that is not to be underestimated. Just as Greece, Portugal and Spain wanted to lock in their democratic rights by joining the E.U. in the 1980s...
...reason for that, of course, is that member states still like to defend and pursue their own national interests, rather than subsume them in a multinational body. There's also a case - and plenty in Europe make it - that Europe is better off continuing to aim low. "Very few European countries see the role of the E.U. as a power," says Moïsi. "They see Europe as a place - with a common market, a common currency, but not a power that should project itself onto the outside world." (See pictures of immigration in Europe...
Europe is right to think big - both for its own sake and for that of others. Many in the rest of the world would welcome a stronger European voice. Capitals from Pretoria to Washington are constantly urging more from their European allies. As U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Philip H. Gordon said to the House Foreign Affairs Committee after the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty last year: "We hope E.U. member states will invest the post-Lisbon institutions with the authority and capacity to make concrete contributions to the pressing global challenges we face together...
...true single bloc would bring greater influence. One of the problems in international meetings, says Jean-Pierre Lehmann, a professor of international political economy at IMD in Switzerland, is that the E.U. is "paralyzed by its members." A senior Asian official describes - with evident exasperation - how at international summits European leaders talk endlessly to each other. "They're very clubby," he says, and it isn't meant as a compliment...
...Next, Europeans need to appreciate that ideals alone don't bring you respect. You have to win others to your side. The reality of that hit home - or should have done - at Copenhagen. Europe had done much of the running on global climate-change policy, setting carbon-reduction targets, introducing the first markets in which carbon could be traded, leading the way on exploiting greener energy sources. European leaders arrived in the Danish capital giving the impression that setting an example would be enough to persuade others into making concessions. But the conference took a different turn. A group...