Europe Book Reviews

Rethinking Europe's Future Author: David P. Calleo; Publisher: Princeton University Press; 2001; 424 pages Reviewed by: MAJ David A. Galles

For the past century Europe has gone through a fundamental change. It has evolved through many changes starting with communitarian nation-states to a confederal European Union (EU). David Calleo, in his book, Rethinking Europe's Future, takes the reader through time from the enlightenment to present day giving a detailed analysis of what Europe was and is. The objective of the book is to give the reader facts in which will tell the tale of what Europe might look like in the future and then to propose what the United States policy should be toward Europe and specifically the European Union and Russia.

In the next to the last chapter Calleo proposes a tripolar Pan-Europe with the US, the EU and Russia at the poles. He states it "essentially adapts and rearranges the parts of the old European and bipolar systems to suit a more cooperative coexistence with the Russians, as well as a more balanced Atlantic Alliance." This is the same proposal that Jaquelin K. Davis and Michael J. Sweeney make in their book, Strategic Paradigms 2025: US Security Planning for a New Era.

The book's strength comes from Calleo himself. He has studied Europe for over 30 years publishing many articles and books on the subject. He is a historian and an American, thus giving him the detachment yet apt perspective. Cal-leo uses his extensive research of Europe and the European Union to support his findings. Students first studying Europe or policy makers and diplomats wanting a fresh view can use the book. The book is broken down into three parts that gives it a textbook style format, thus making it easy to reference. In the first two sections, Cal-leo at the end of each chapter gives "Selected Sources" broken down by subject matter. So for instance if the reader wants to study more on Friedrich von Hayek, then Calleo lists the major works used. It is very well annotated and although it the book does not take into the account the terrorists attacks of September 2001 and the world economic slowdown, it does give the reader the evidence to help predict the future of European affairs.

In the first section of Rethinking Europe's Future, entitled "Europe's Living History," Calleo takes the reader from World War I forward yet reaching father back in history to give the reader evidence. The four chapters that make up the first part of the book conclude with Calleo opining that "today's European Union, led by France and Germany together, embodies the project in a more authentically Listian form." Any student of international relations and industrial policy of European Nations will note that the corporatist model in Germany is straight from Frederich List. List helped spur the European Union but it was Friedrich von Hayek that helped with the solution for the welfare state. The summary of the first part brings three conclusions to the living past: 1) sovereign nation states are closely interdependent, 2) capitalism grows self- destructive as it develops (Marx), and 3) Nation states and capitalism are both symbiotic and fundamentally antagonistic. In the first half of the twentieth century we see what happens when these cannot be managed, but in the second half of the century, it was the Cold War that brought stability so that Europe could worry about integration.

In the second part of the book, Calleo looks at the "Legacies of the Cold War" and how Europe made it through and what the postwar brought to improve Europe's state system. With the implementation of the Marshall plan; the overshadowing bipolar system between the two superpowers; and the postwar integration, led by France and Germany, are what made "Europe's nation states much more effective, and hence enhancing their practical sovereignty, integration has given them fresh legitimacy. The EU has thus developed a hybrid. It has remained a confederacy of sovereign nation states, even though there have been strong 'federal' elements of growing significance." It is here where Calleo makes the distinction that the EU is better conceived as a civilian project, and has troubles when it comes to security, defense, and foreign policy. In a system of cooperation it is difficult to give up national interests in these three realms to a supranational organization, on the other hand, the nation states of Europe have found it convenient to do so when it comes to macroeconomic policies to obtain exchange rate stabilization.

In the last section, "The New Europe," Calleo states why the European Union might not develop into a confederal Europe of States due to its inability to make the right constitutional choices. Calleo opines that the EU must make three choices in three major constitutional issues: membership, scope, and governing structures. He supports his arguments well when he suggests that the EU must make a decision on widening and deepening at the same time. Doing both will have detrimental effects on the EU. Calleo suggests that the EU should ensure that the right structures are in place before taking on new members.

When Calleo concludes, he comes back to the main point of the book -- how will Europe look and what should be US policy. As stated at the beginning of this review, Calleo states that should Europe make the right choices in the future, which it seems it is, then the US should become an "off-shore balancer" and a tripolar model used with the US, the EU, and Russia at the poles. If this is done then the United States will not necessarily fall from its position it is in now, and will develop a regional system that might one day be the model for a future world order.

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