*** IRNERIO SEMINATORE: L'Europe entre Utopie et Realpolitik. Editions L'Harmattan (5-7 rue de l'Ecole Polytechnique, F-75005 Paris. Tel: (33-1) 40467920 - Fax: 43258203 - Internet: http://www.editions-harmattan.fr ). "Questions contemporaines" series. 2009, 437 pp, €39-20. ISBN 978-2-296-06928-2.
"Is it possible these days to share sovereignty, the decision-making system, the legal order and security at home and overseas without combining forces and the state violence, coercion and surveillance system in a single decision-making system?" The question is discussed in this book by a well-known university professor in European circles in Brussels where he is a leading light at the European Institute of International Relations. With a preface by Graham Watson, the out-going chair of the Liberals and Democrats Group at the European Parliament, this dense and serious book - although brightened by illustrations, unusually for this type of publication - is described as a "work of reflection, historical criticism and future strategy". That is certainly is, but it is also an attempt to rehabilitate the 'realist' school of thought of which Irnerio Seminatore has always been an enthusiast in the face of all opposition. As far as the author is concerned, the time has come for the European Union to finally recognise that although a mixture of utopia and idealism enabled it to come into being, only ideas infused with realism will enable it to grow and exist in this twenty-first century world.
The author argues that at the end of the Second World War, "Machiavelli's ideas, Richelieu's reflections and Hobbes' mythologies were buried in the depths of the European abyss at the heart of the European tragedy," not to mention the ideas of figures like Hegel, Weber and, closer to our time, Aron, Kissinger and Kaplan. At the same time, the idealist tradition, "rooted in ethical imperatives," found in Monnet a man able to put the thought of Kant, Hamilton, Habermas et al into practice in the form of a 'soft power' Europe that is simply an "anti-history of secular Europe without epics or myths, (…) a history from which the tragedy has been removed, an ethnically indifferent and technically bureaucratic history, with the moral outlook of a disarmed democracy". Yikes! As Irnerio Seminatore see it, Europe has gone astray because in the modern world, foreign security imperatives are still more important than anything else, which is why "countries have never agreed to submit to judgement on the grounds of an idea, ethics, a value system or a standard when questions of vital interest are at stake". In this context, the federalist thought at play in the European integration process went astray by wanting to replace the traditional determinisms of national interest and security with determinisms of "peace and well-being," wanting to be "the first step in the direction of a vision of international relations reshaped by harmony". This mistake is all the more obvious in that the Treaty of Rome "let the political sovereignty of Member States survive de facto and de jure", as the plurality of military sovereignties still demonstrates. The author comments that in fact, transfers of powers to the European Commission have only covered "management measures comparable to those of national ministries over specific subjects and powers," and have not in any way involved transfers of sovereignty to supranational authorities, with nation states remaining "living realities". Treaty upon Treaty, Member States have "agreed to make up for the limits and incoherence of fifty years of EU legislation," always based on “traditional intergovernmental influence and pressure" symbolised by the "Franco-German empire". Basically, the author points out, integration "has not been able to shift from political plurality to political unity". With major consequences: "Thus far, the various forms of federalism (furtive, substitution or clandestine) have not managed to create a system of duties and rules to enable security decisions to be taken whereby a united player asserts itself by opposition and decides unilaterally on the use of force. These forms of federalism have not managed to define a strategy of external violence seen as the ultima ratio regum".
Irnerio Seminatore argues that the world is still, as always, "disordered, fragmented and viscous, comprising many antagonisms and always alert to rivalry". An author devoted to realpolitik and the lessons to be learned from domestic developments that will enable the European Union to again become a "global player". The book is brimming with examples, arguments and reflections (that some will take issue with) to demonstrate that "the future of Europe has to be based on big picture politics, at global level now, without returning to the restrictive, insufficient and deceptive systems of the past, to our old cognitive schemes and, in the worst of aphorisms, to our blinkered thinking and clichés"…
Michel Theys
*** JENNIFER MEDCALF: Going Global or Going Nowhere? NATO's Role in Contemporary International Security. Peter Lang (1 Moostrasse, Postfach 350, CH-2542 Pieterlen, Switzerland. Tel: (41-32) 3761717 - Fax: 3761727 - email: info@peterlang.com Internet: http://www.peterlang.com ). 2008, 280 pp, €45-30. ISBN 978-3-03910-584-7.
Set up in response to the Soviet threat, NATO was intended to be a military alliance limited to a specific area of action - the North Atlantic. Ever since it was set up, there has been much debate about the protective role that NATO should have and above all, about whether its area of action should be limited to the area defined in the NATO treaty or whether it should stretch out to include adjacent areas or even distant parts of the world. During the Cold War, it was decided that the area should remain restricted and NATO played a major role in transatlantic security relations without overstepping the limits of its action. The fall of the Iron Curtain raised the question of what NATO is for, for some people at least. Over and above the question of keeping NATO going, the political will (mainly from the US) to extend its operations beyond the old area gained ground during the Balkans events. Deprived of a Communist threat, NATO faces several small-scale threats but outside rather than inside its protection zone, and also in remote countries. In addition, the character of the new threats of terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction is encouraging reflection on whether NATO is still justified and how it should be adapted. Lecturer in the defence and international affairs department at the Royal Military Academy in Sandhurst, the UK, Jennifer Medcalf describes the evolution of debate about whether NATO's area of action should be extended, and looks at how the adaptation process to change NATO from a body with regional responsibilities to a global player was successfully carried out. She starts by explaining what NATO was during the Cold War and then explains the how and why of its current changes through the prism of debate between the United States and Europe. The events of 9-11 2001 and their impact on NATO are also discussed in relation to NATO's ever broader global reach, in the light of the Afghan War.
(NDu)
*** JOSEF SCHROLF, SEAN MICHAEL COX, THOMAS PANKRATZ: Winning the Asymmetric War. Peter Lang (see above). 2009, 366 pp, €51-20. ISBN 978-3-631-57249-8.
Although the twenty-first century has not removed war from the face of the earth, it has at least changed its terminology. Humanity has always suffered from the horrors of war. War used to be the business of the military and politics, but has spread since 11 September 2001 to all levels of society. Encouraged by the media and communications, the feeling of insecurity that grew after the collapse of the twin towers has become a question of society, transgressing national frontiers, economic and social classes and even political ideologies. As the mega-military power of the United States reveals its limits in the “war on terror,” many have been waving the flag of the idea of 'asymmetric war,' a concept that explains the United States and their Allies' lack of success. Clearly, the traditional view of war as understood by nations is now argued to be different because countries' armies no longer have a single, clearly defined enemy to fight but rather a myriad of micro players with a range of different methodologies who are not connected with any one country. The authors of the book are political scientists and military people, who take a different view. They believe the concept of asymmetric war is very old and even argue that conflicts have always been asymmetric since the origins of the earth. To prove this, they start with a theoretical analysis of the concept, looking back at Biblical times and cases like David and Goliath to show how old the idea is. They also consider how the United States has changed the balance of the world as the last superpower remaining in place tries to adjust to the vacuum left by the former Soviet Union. The second part of the book provides a practical analysis with several examples of how this theory is applied, considering for example how nations deal with the problem in the global state system and how the issue has spread to the environment. To flesh out their vision, tangible examples of asymmetric wars are given, like Chechnya, el-Qaida and international cooperation among counter-terror agencies.
(NDu)
*** TAKAKO UETA, ERIC REMACLE (Eds.): Tokyo - Brussels Partnership. Security, Development and Knowledge-based Society. Presses Interuniversitaires Européennes / Peter Lang (1 av. Maurice, B-1050 Brussels. Tel: (41-32) 3761717 - Fax: 3761727 - email: info@peterlang.com - Internet: http://www.peterlang.com ). "International Insights" series, No. 7. 2008, 315 pp, €37-50. ISBN 978-90-5201-043-4.
This book publishes the proceedings of cooperation conferences between the European Union and Japan in 2005 and 2006. Organised each year by the 'Association des Etudes Politiques Transeuropéennes,' the Garnet Network, 'Université Libre de Bruxelles' and the International Christian University of Tokyo, the conferences aim to cement ties between the EU and Japan. In the 1970s and 1980s, the bulk of EU-Japanese relations concerned the car industry, steel or videos - protectionist issues. This changed at the end of the Cold War and EU-Japanese relations now have a technological, scientific and cultural component, along with political dialogue at international level. Edited by the head of the Japanese Mission to the European Union and a political analyst from the ULB in Brussels, the book describes the latest developments in EU-Japan relations and the impact of the recent changes in the world economy on regional security and development. The authors are European and Japanese academics who discuss the impact of the Lisbon Agenda and implications for Japan and the EU of the new knowledge-based society (casting light on the reasons for Japan's successes in R&D), the way the European social model is viewed in Japan, and the impact of the failure to conclude the Doha Trade Round. The second part of the book looks at EU-Japanese relations from more of a global viewpoint with essays on the opportunities and limits of institutionalism in east Asia, the option of a joint EU-Japanese agenda on security issues, particularly the security of populations, and Japan's role at the United Nations and its work to combat the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
(NDu)
*** CLAUDIA MAHLER, ANJA MIHR, REETTA TOIVANEN (Eds.): The United Nations Decade for Human Rights Education and the Inclusion of National Minorities. Peter Lang (see above). 2009, 204 pp, €32-50. ISBN 978-3-631-56807-1.
In 1994, the United Nations decided to organise a Decade for Human Rights, Education and the Inclusion of National Minorities, that ended in December 2004. Following research by three human rights experts and a conference organised at Humboldt University in Berlin, this book explains what human rights education comprises in theory and in practice, studying the tangible fall-out of the UN decade, which led to commitment by governments and the voluntary sector. A huge number of essays focus on the real impact of the work on national and ethnic minorities in the light of the Roma in Slovakia. Three other countries put under the spotlight are Spain, Estonia and Armenia.
(PBo)
*** Contre le travail des enfants? Points de vue du Sud. Centre Tricontinental (5 av. Sainte Gertrude, B-1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium. Tel: (32-10) 489560 - Fax: 489569 - email: cetri@cetri.be - Internet: http://www.cetri.be ) and Editions Syllepse (69 rue des Rigoles, F-75020 Paris. email: editions@syllepse.net). "Alternatives Sud" series, Vol. XVI, No. 1. 2009, 177 pp, €18. Annual subscription: €50. ISBN 978-2-84950-219-8.
Child labour is a highly complex issue for anyone prepared to look beyond emotions. After all, how long ago was it that child labour ended in Europe and the West in general? In terms of humanity's history, child labour only ceased very recently in Europe, probably only a hundred or so years ago. The prevalence of Western ideals tends to colour policy in this domain, however. Historian Aurélie Leroy explains in the introduction that child labour policy tends to confuse "defence of the child's higher interest with abolition of child labour" and one of the book's essays reveals in this connection the pretences in the International Labour Organisation's work on child labour. With examples form Asia, Africa and Latin America, experts from the 'Centre Tricontinental' explain the views of child labourer movements rejecting this confusion and demand the right to dignified employment. They show that the examples of exploitation are connected with the economic, political and legal logic of development models and the unfair and unequal relations between North and South. (PBo)