The Binding of Nations The Binding of Nations From European Union to World Union Mark Corner © Mark Corner 2010 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2010 978-0-230-23086-6 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6-10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2010 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, HampshireRG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries ISBN 978-1-349-31181-1 ISBN 978-0-230-27495-2 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9780230274952 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Corner, Mark. The binding of nations : from European Union to world union / Mark Corner. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-349-31181-1 1. International organization. 2. International cooperation. I. Title. JZ1318.C686 2010 341.2–dc22 2009048416 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 To Jeremy Contents Preface x 1 Introduction 1 A proposal 1 Patriotism is not enough 2 The sharing of sovereignty 4 The structure of the book 6 A point about language 10 Conclusion 13 Part I Towards European Union 15 2 The Rise of the Nation-State 17 The end of Christendom 17 The nation becomes the nation-state 21 The nation-state as a ‘civilising force’ 27 Norbert Elias and the sociological perspective 29 Conclusion 31 3 From Nationalism to Supranationalism 34 The idea of ‘supranationalism’ 34 ‘Supranationalism’ finds its moment in history 36 British and French approaches to supranationalism 40 The British approach 40 The French approach 42 British and French approaches to the treaties of Rome 45 Conclusion 52 4 Managing Supranationalism 54 Introduction 54 European law 54 ‘Own resources’ 59 Supporting vulnerable economic sectors 62 The later development of the European Union 65 Conclusion 72 Part II Options for Global Governance 75 5 The United Nations 77 Introduction 77 vii viii Contents The Security Council 78 Outside the Security Council – UN ‘agencies’ 83 The legal framework of the UN 88 Recent developments – The problem of intervention 91 The financial framework of the UN 94 Conclusion 97 6 Other Potential Global Authorities 101 Introduction 101 Financial and economic bodies 102 The International Monetary Fund 102 The World Bank 105 The World Trade Organisation 106 Organisation for Economic Cooperation and 109 Development G7, G8, G20 … G200? 112 The Commonwealth and the International Francophone 114 Organisation NATO and the OSCE 116 New organisations 122 Can the problem be bypassed? 124 Conclusion 128 7 Other Regional Unions 130 Introduction 130 The African Union 131 ASEAN 136 MERCOSUR and UNASUR 141 Conclusion 146 Part III A Global Union 149 8 Current EU Thinking 151 Introduction 151 ‘Effective multilateralism’ 151 ‘Effective inter-regionalism’ 155 Success and failure: Europe and its ‘near abroad’ 157 The EU and the Southern Mediterranean 158 The EU and Eastern/South-Eastern Europe 161 The Balkans 161 Europe’s ‘Far East’ 165 Turkey 169 Conclusion 170 Contents ix 9 A Global Sharing of Sovereignty 173 Moving beyond other organisations 173 The McClintock system 176 Food security 181 Extending the sharing of sovereignty 187 The EU as a member of a Global Union 189 Conclusion 193 10 The Copernican Revolution 195 Introduction 195 A Union to serve the nation-state 199 The sharing of sovereignty and the domestic analogy 201 The EU and its malaise 205 Can the EU manage a Copernican revolution? 207 European ‘presumption’ 209 The need for a trigger 211 Conclusion 213 Notes 215 References 232 Index 237 Preface Two experiences were crucial to the formation of this book. One was that of attending the launch of a book on the relations between the EU and the UN. Academics, politicians and EU officials came together in Brussels to enthuse about a ‘natural partnership’ between the EU and the UN. I was reminded of the wedding service of Prince Charles and Lady Diana in 1981, when a somewhat over- enthusiastic Archbishop of Canterbury talked about a ‘marriage made in heaven’. But the more the clichés flowed, the less convinced I was that these two organisations were really ‘natural partners’. There was a smattering of ‘Jean Monnet professors’ present, but I couldn’t help won- dering whether some of them might have come away with the sort of misgivings that Jean Monnet himself had, when he perceived that the launch of the Council of Europe in London in 1948 was not the answer to the problem of post-war European cooperation. The second important experience was that of reading John McClintock’s The Uniting of Nations: An Essay in Global Governance. This was the first time that I had come across a sustained argument for a limited sharing of sovereignty, not simply as the foundation of a European Union but of a World or Global Union. The author was himself an official of the European Union, in the department concerned with Agriculture and Rural Affairs. It seemed to me that McClintock offered a much more plausible approach to global governance than that which I had witnessed earlier. This book is an attempt to provide a systematic account of why I believe that ‘the McClintock approach’ is to be preferred. It could not have been written without the help I received from my university employer, formerly EHSAL and now going under the acronym HUB (Hogeschool-Universiteit Brussel). I want to thank them, among other things, for tolerating my pres- ence under their noses at the computer in the staff room for the best part of a year. I would also like to express my deep gratitude to my wife and to a wide variety of EU officials and friends who encouraged me in this endeavour and did not think me entirely mad. The book is dedicated to my two-year-old son in the hope that he, at least, may see the world advance beyond what Norbert Elias rightly identified as the present era of ‘late barbarism’. – Mark Corner 1 Introduction A proposal In its edition for 5th–11th July 2008, the front cover of The Economist pictured a broken Tower of Babel. The tower had various windows which were labelled ‘UN’, ‘OPEC’, ‘WTO’, ‘NATO’, ‘IMF’, ‘EU’ and so on. The headline was ‘What a way to run the world’, and the message was that the attempt to create a successful form of global governance – or global institutional oversight – had so far been a failure. Running the world, like building your way up to Heaven from below, was beyond the wit of men and women. Just as the original Babel turned the harmony of Eden into a ‘babble’ of mutually incomprehensible languages, so a world divided into about two hundred different nation- states was in danger of falling apart and failing to deal in a coordinated manner with the major problems of the day. Those problems were global ones, but the institutions which existed to respond at a global level were proving unable or unwilling to do so. The leading article in The Economistended with the following words: Faced with the need to reform international institutions, the rich world – and America in particular – has a choice. Cling to power, and China and India will form their own clubs, focused on their own interests and problems. Cede power and bind them in, and interests and problems are shared. The summer of 2008 saw the debate about global governance reflected in the issue of The Economist achieve an unexpected prominence. Interest in the subject was generated in part by 2008 US Republican presidential candidate John McCain’s championing of a so-called 1