In search of Europe's internal and external borders: Politics, security, identity and the European Union

Abstract

This article argues that it is the experimental and the innovative nature of the European Union (EU) that enables it to respond to multiple agendas and Europe's diversity in a flexible manner. In this view, the EU is a harbinger of trends in political and economic order, locked as it is between modernity and post‐modernity ‐ between the territorial national‐state, regionalism, localism, multi‐level governance, globalisation and the politics of identity. In the final analysis, the Union represents a form of deep regionalism in contrast to other regionalisms in the world. From eastern Europe to Latin America and North America the EU model is copied and diffused into world politics. It might be concluded that imitation is the finest form of flattery. © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands.