The lost art of diplomacy: David Cameron to Europe’s rescue?

The British leadership has engaged in much posturing over Jean-Claude Juncker, the Spitzenkandidat of the EPP, and favoured candidate for European Commission President, ostensibly out of concern for Europe’s future, which, it claims, would be better served by a fresh face. Even if much of what Cameron and his supporters say is true, his strategy is deeply flawed

The politics of blame

When things go wrong someone is blamed. Throughout the current crisis there have been several convenient scapegoats: the EU itself, southern European countries and Germany, among others. Passing the buck is an all too familiar rhetorical strategy, but it is not constructive. It is not conducive to the diplomacy that a collective response requires, nor does it elevate the public’s understanding of the challenges faced

Greece’s government deserves benefit of doubt

Wednesday’s Eurogroup meeting managed to underwhelm low expectations, as talks even failed to agree the usual face-saving joint statement outlining a structured agenda for future talks. It appears Varoufakis disappointed Eurogroup ministers by arriving without a written plan, and while several versions of a joint statement were drafted, disagreement over the inclusion of the terms program, extension and amendment meant that the waiting press corps had to contend with a press conference that merely announced that there was nothing to announce

EU Membership and the Immigration ‘Problem’ – Fact and fiction in British public discourse

As David Cameron attempt to be more royalist than the king, ratcheting up his eurosceptic and anti-immigration rhetoric in an attempt to outgun Nigel Farage, it is obvious that public discourse and popular sentiment are turning sour on migration and membership of the European Union. But what explains the ascent of immigration and the EU as the foremost concerns of the British public

Against Anti-Pluralism

Citizens are voting for candidates hitherto considered unlikely; the future of the EU, and indeed the post-war international order is in question. It is unsurprising that the current fin de siècle atmosphere, and many citizens’ sense of precarity, uncertainty, and loss of control, would produce the current outpouring of scorn in response to perceived political immobilism in the face of burgeoning challenges. A few weeks ago Roberto Orsi contributed to the expansive debate about the causes, consequences and appropriate responses to these political ruptures emerging across the western world. Orsi’s piece is helpful because it identifies important symptoms and systematic failures in western policy, but he willfully pushes a uni-causal account of events, and points us towards fallacious solutions. Though this pieces is at least in part a response to Orsi, having read his piece (which can be found here) is by no means a prerequisite for following this one

Disabused of Great Expectations? (Don’t) Hold your breath for Germany’s election

Those who were lucky enough to enjoy a vacation from the euro crisis this summer might partially owe this pleasure to the prevalent notion that all will be different after Germany’s election. “Then,” some might have exclaimed, “we will see decisive leadership in the Euro Crisis, Germany will agree to transfers and stimulus spending, the banking union will be completed, Germany will foster domestic demand, and generally be forthcoming to its European partners.” Followed by a muted: “We hope,” muttered under their breath

One continent, 27 different media: The German president appeals for a european public sphere

On 23 February Joachim Gauck, the German President, delivered a much anticipated speech on Europe in which he appealed for a more European media and a European Public Sphere. It is worth quoting him verbatim

Europe’s gravest threat: Doctrines diverged

Europe’s fiscal and economic crisis has revealed rifts in, what is often assumed to be a common understanding of the ‘European Project.’ Nowhere did the fact that different nations understand the ‘European Project’ quite differently come to a fore as explicitly as during 17 hour negotiations over a 3rd ESM programme for Greece—and particularly, in what different European nations view as the gravest threat to their common project

The EU, a fair-weather ship between Scylla and Charybdis

The EU faces debilitation by multiple crises: economic malaise and high unemployment, an influx of refugee and mounting security concerns. They all lay bare that resilience was not build into the EU’s architecture, it lacks the institutional capacities to respond to external shocks. Either its members create the capacities needed to respond resolutely to such shocks, or it heads for sclerotic decline

The battle lines have been etched

Latent tensions became manifest with the result of the Brexit referendum, etching the battle line that will define the struggles ahead. Those who have embraced and built their lives around our liberal-cosmopolitan global order, and found opportunity in open markets, are now pitted against those who see themselves as excluded, maligned, and disenfranchised by this order, and those who plainly think their identity should matter more than it does. While the former have adapted, and exploited the opportunities globalisation has offered, the latter have risen to rebel against it