Surely, European cooperation of some kind makes sense, if only to secure a basic peace and to avert war. But the dream of a federal Europe is dead, and frankly, was stillborn. It won't happen. Not only is there no path to that happening, not only has nothing like that ever happened, but it doesn't even make sense. Go ahead. Tell me what it means to be "European". You can't. There's no such thing. It can't compete with being French, German, Polish, Italian, etc. Worse, you can't even join it. The United States started as a British colonial possession (mostly) that formed the nucleus of the country. People moving to the US were joining a society that had already existed, even if loosely. There is no "European" nucleus and you couldn't impose it on Europe even if it wasn't a vacuous idea. Every attempt to unify Europe failed. It was always and can only be an imperialist endeavor. Right now, it's largely a German play. Look at Merkel. She has no position in the EU and yet is treated as if she had. That's not a coincidence. Nobody wants to be part of some crypto-German empire. Those who do move to Germany.
This is why we're seeing Central/European European coalescing into a web of alliances based on the historical and present need to form a cohesive bloc able to repel both German dominance and Russian aggression. It is a geopolitical necessity and an act of self-preservation. They don't want to vegetate in a state of permanent neocolonial mediocrity. They didn't throw off the yoke of Russian dominance just to become a second-class corral of cheap labor and an economic dumping ground for Germany and other Western countries. They don't want to be what Piketty calls "foreign-owned countries". A federal Europe wouldn't magically dissolve the power relations in Europe, it would formalize this dominance under the guise of unity, cooperation, and some "new European man" nonsense. Gee, where have we heard that farce before.
A better solution, grounded in the hard facts of reality and not insipid bromides, is to respect national sovereignty and to maintain a forum or forums for fostering, organically, European cooperation and the resolution of disputes. The US will play an important role in maintaining the geopolitical balance.
P.S. Manifest destiny make no sense in relation to Europe, and it is a dubious concept anyway.
Surely, European cooperation of some kind makes sense, if only to secure a basic peace and to avert war. But the dream of a federal Europe is dead, and frankly, was stillborn. It won't happen. Not only is there no path to that happening, not only has nothing like that ever happened, but it doesn't even make sense. Go ahead. Tell me what it means to be "European". You can't. There's no such thing. It can't compete with being French, German, Polish, Italian, etc. Worse, you can't even join it. The United States started as a British colonial possession (mostly) that formed the nucleus of the country. People moving to the US were joining a society that had already existed, even if loosely. There is no "European" nucleus and you couldn't impose it on Europe even if it wasn't a vacuous idea. Every attempt to unify Europe failed. It was always and can only be an imperialist endeavor. Right now, it's largely a German play. Look at Merkel. She has no position in the EU and yet is treated as if she had. That's not a coincidence. Nobody wants to be part of some crypto-German empire. Those who do move to Germany.
This is why we're seeing Central/European European coalescing into a web of alliances based on the historical and present need to form a cohesive bloc able to repel both German dominance and Russian aggression. It is a geopolitical necessity and an act of self-preservation. They don't want to vegetate in a state of permanent neocolonial mediocrity. They didn't throw off the yoke of Russian dominance just to become a second-class corral of cheap labor and an economic dumping ground for Germany and other Western countries. They don't want to be what Piketty calls "foreign-owned countries". A federal Europe wouldn't magically dissolve the power relations in Europe, it would formalize this dominance under the guise of unity, cooperation, and some "new European man" nonsense. Gee, where have we heard that farce before.
A better solution, grounded in the hard facts of reality and not insipid bromides, is to respect national sovereignty and to maintain a forum or forums for fostering, organically, European cooperation and the resolution of disputes. The US will play an important role in maintaining the geopolitical balance.
P.S. Manifest destiny make no sense in relation to Europe, and it is a dubious concept anyway.