Does regional integration challenge national identities?

Résumé du document

Regional integration is a process whereby states enter into a regional agreement in order to enhance regional cooperation through regional institutions and rules. The European Union is an example of regional integration that we are going to focus on. The project of the European Union, whereby this ancient "collection of nation-states" become "an integrated polity" (according to S. Fabbrini), is based on the idea that there can be a feeling of belonging and of identification of the European people, beyond the national identity, and that it is not incompatible with it. At the same time, there are many debates around the idea that this identity and the feeling that Europeans are also European citizens are not present enough. Through literature and philosophy, the idea have been developed for a long time, that there is a European substance that forged itself through history which could exist even in times of war. The diversity of the different states constituting the European Union shows how resonant and efficient nationalism can be.

Extraits

[...] This is very close to the idea expressed in “Crisis of the mind” by P. Valéry, and this is at the centre of the book of P. Sloterdijk, who notices that after liberation, Europe lost its central place in the world, and is in an of emptiness” but needs to awake. But for Sloterdijk, there is a continuity in European history, as he sees in each change a new “translation of the Empire”, for example nation States all acted as mini-empires, and the European Union is at risk of being a new translation. [...]

[...] Another myth is that it is Christianity allowed the European identity to develop. For Morin, Europe's history is mostly a history of wars and divisions, as well as of ruptures, with what he calls “metamorphosis”. If division is at the heart of European history, there has also always been the myth that Europe had a certain unity of culture; it is one civilization, made out of many values such as those coming from the humanist era. We can quote F. [...]

[...] These considerations actually bring us to the core of a huge debate: to what extent european regional integration challenges national identities of its member states? Why and how does the European context modify the concept of nationalism? These previous questions can lead one to ask: what is the European identity? In other words what does it mean to be European? And how was this identity built? Those interrogations on the European identity will also lead to think about the problems of European citizenship, as well as the finality of this European belonging. [...]

[...] Les voies d'une intégration post-nationale http://users.skynet.be/sky95042/online.html (author website) Hobsbawn, Eric (2008). L'Europe : mythe, histoire, réalité. Le Monde 25/09/08 Kagan, Robert (2002). Power and Weakness. http://www.policyreview.org.JUN02/kagan.html Morin, Edgard [1987] (1990). Penser l'Europe . Folio essai, Gallimard. Sloterdijk, Peter [1994] (2003). Si l'Europe s'éveille. Mille et une nuits. Valéry, Paul [1919] (1998). [...]

[...] Does regional integration challenge national identities? Does regional integration challenge national identities ? In particular, discuss the process of formation and transformation of nationalism and democracy in the European context, basing your argument on specific empirical cases and using as starting point the book by S. Fabbrini, Compound Democracies, Oxford University, Press If the word integration means anything, this is what it means: that we, with love, shall force our brothers to see themselves as they are, to cease fleeing from reality and begin to change it. [...]