Steven den Beste has some trenchant comments on that David Clark column I was complaining about last week:
Europeans have always tried to concentrate power. Everyone important in Europe has always agreed about this. The only argument has been who, exactly, would be the ones to wield that power. Europe has spent the last thousand years fighting bloody and inconclusive wars to try to decide that minor detail. Both World Wars began in Europe because of that. Now, with tentative steps towards formation of the European Union, that dream of complete centralization of power is finally being realized.Posted by Dr. Frank at May 21, 2002 05:38 PM | TrackBackThe EU is not a revolution. It is not something new. It is the culmination of the last thousand years of European politics. It is the fulfillment of the dream of Charlemagne, not to mention the Hapsburgs, Napoleon, Stalin and numerous others.
Of course, Europeans didn't just spend that thousand years fighting to rule each other; they also spent it trying to rule everyone else in the world. For several hundred years they almost succeeded by force of arms, but that all started to fall apart about 70 years ago, and the Europeans were largely out of the empire business by 30 years ago.
European "international multilateralism" is nothing more than traditional European imperialism with a paint job. The old European empires were created with muskets and cannons. The new European empire will be created with treaties. But the world will still be ruled from Europe, like it ought to be.
The recent complaints about American "unilateralism" come down to this: The Europeans think that the United States should ask for European permission before doing anything. The United States hasn't been asking. Europe grumbles.
Just as with the urge to centralize power in Europe, the urge to rule the world from Europe remains. Another manifestation of that is the International Criminal Court. Europe no longer has the ability to rule the world by force of arms, but it may still be able to convince the world to let it rule, through treaties. So there will be one world court in Europe, with mainly European Judges, ruling according to European legal principles. The US has told the Europeans to stick their court. Europe is righteously indignant. More grumbling.