Revisiting Westphalia
In 1998, I attended a conference on the occasion of the 350th anniversary of the Peace of Westphalia. The event was co-organized by the Universities of Münster and Enschede on both sides of the Dutch-German border. Given that Westphalia is a standard reference point for the genesis of the territorial system of sovereign states that became the predominant way of organizing world politics in the 20th century, it is no surprise that one of the highlights of the conference was the bus trip from Enschede across the border into Germany. Yet ten minutes into German territory, most delegates had missed the border crossing. To the amazement of many non-Europeans on the bus, and to the dismay of those looking forward to collecting another stamp, there had been no border guard, no barrier – only a small blue sign with the yellow twelve-star circle of the European Union and “Federal Republic of Germany” written onto it. And yes, the color and style of the road signs and the majority of license plates had been changed.
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Ten years later, one can assume that readers of the Harvard International Review would not be surprised by the lack of borders. The Schengen Agreement between most EU, and even some neighboring non-EU,countries eventually led to the abolishment of interstate border controls (although notably, the United Kingdom and Ireland have opted out of Schengen). Earlier this year, most of the countries that had joined the EU in 2004 became part of the “Schengen zone”, which now ranges from the Western Atlantic rim to the Baltic States. Yet Schengen is merely the most apparent sign of European integration visible to the traveler. Article 21 (1) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, which is currently undergoing ratification, establishes the right of EU citizens “to move and reside freely within the territory of the Member States,” and Article 26 (2) enshrines an EU-wide “internal market [which] shall comprise an area without internal frontiers in which the free movement of goods, persons, services and capital is ensured.” Similar provisions already exist in the present Treaties. Most economic policy decisions are no longer made at the member states' level but rather on the EU level and there is significant integration of justice and home affairs policies. Even in the area of foreign and security policy, progress toward collective decision-making has been made, although the success of this is contested. Through its regional policy, the EU also has specific programs to provide support to former border regions and enhance cross-border cooperation.
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Many observers have therefore noted that territorial state borders as we know them are being transformed exactly where they had originally been invented. The EU is often seen as a new kind of political organization that would transcend territorial borders. John Gerard Ruggie, in a 1993 article in International Organization with the catchy title “Territoriality and Beyond”, called it a “postmodern polity.” Those who see the nation state as inhibiting the full development of democracy because of the exclusionary effect of the state system’s territorial borders often look to the EU as an example of democracy “beyond the nation-state.” So is the EU heralding a new era in world politics? Is it a sign of a world to come without borders?
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The answer to the latter question is a clear no. Whether or not the EU is a novel actor in world politics is a matter of much debate. At the moment, it is a complex system of overlapping authorities, where decision-making is spread across the regional, national, and EU level. While all federal systems are characterized by a degree of dispersion of power, in the EU this is taken to an extreme. In the 1970s, Hedley Bull coined the term “neo-medieval” for the then European Community because it reminded him of the patchwork of overlapping authorities that had prevailed in many parts of medieval Europe before the existence of the Westphalian territorial state, with its clear borders and internal hierarchy of power, became the dominant form of political organization.
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Bull saw that this “neo-medieval” system presented a fundamental challenge to the state system. Ultimately, however, he thought that the European integration process would succumb to the pressures of the state system and either unravel or lead to a federal state on European level. Neither has happened since. Instead, the EU has developed both its territorial borders and furthered its “neo-medieval” characteristics. The status of borders in Europe today serves as a clear illustration of this ambiguity. Some borders have disappeared, others stay on; new ones have been created and others redefined.
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The Continued Existence of Borders
Let us first look at the way borders still matter in today’s Europe. While many people think of Schengen as allowing borderless travel, the corollary has been the construction of a unified territorial border between Schengen and non-Schengen countries. There are of course still idiosyncrasies – for instance, visas are still issued by national embassies rather than an EU consulate. However, one also cannot dismiss the achievement of eliminating border controls in an area that used to be marred by national rivalries regularly leading to war. Yet many of the new outer Schengen borders are less permeable than the old borders. Indeed, the EU has done a lot to support new Schengen countries to align their border controls with the other member states, and the EU’s external border agency, Frontex, continues to provide technical assistance and facilitate the exchange of best practice in border management. 9/11 has done its part in ensuring a focus on tight border controls. This reinforcement of external borders therefore lends some credibility to Bull’s argument that eventually the EU would simply replace the member states with a new state in international politics.
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It will be interesting to observe the effect that such a focus on the outer borders of the EU has on European identity. One cannot think of identity without borders – borders define identities. The latest round of EU enlargements in 2004 and 2007 has brought the identity question more than ever to the heart of the debates about integration. During the Cold War, despite a conflation between “Europe” and the European Community (EC), European identity was treated as a given without being seriously challenged. It was clear to all that Europe extended beyond the EC, and the possibility of these two ever coinciding seemed distant if not outright impossible. Now, the EU comprises most of the states that are undisputedly seen as European, while the remaining states either do not want to join or have a clear, long-term membership option. This pushes the EU to consider states, such as Turkey, which the public sees as more ambiguous in relation to European identity, despite the formal commitment of the EU to Turkey as a European state ever since the 1963 Association Agreement. The result is not without irony: while the EU has grown, become more diverse, and includes increasing numbers of permanent immigrants with a Turkish or other non-EU background, the enlargement has simultaneously had the effect of strengthening a sense of or at least a debate over European identity and its borders.
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A Radical Challenge, But Only in Parts
Analogies are always problematic, but Bull’s scenario of a neo-medieval Europe clearly captures something of the spirit throughout most parts of Europe better than statist terms. This, however, is largely a picture of what is happening within the EU. At the external borders of the EU, there is little to suggest that borders are being redefined or even abolished. While there are Euregios at the EU’s outer borders, such as Euregion Bug, and while the EU has allowed the provision of local border traffic permits for people living in the immediate vicinity of an EU outer border, security discourses nonetheless tend to override attempts to cooperate as much as identity discourses. In this sense, the EU would really only provide an alternative to the society of states as Bull saw it if the integrative ethos inside were to be applied to its outer borders. This is not out of the question, but it is not yet the right time for such a move.
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