I “Heart” Europe

As the United States seeks to win over the Middle East for its freedom-spreading agenda, Brussels is struggling to convince Europeans that more Europe is good for them. Both are uphill battles where optimistic rhetoric stands in sharp contrast to modest results. Images of burning cities in Iraq and burning cars in Paris only add to the gloominess surrounding both Americas and Europes prospects to sell themselves and their policies. After the European Constitution was spectacularly noned by the French and neeed by the Dutch last summer, Brussels has been confused about what to do next. The European Commission has now launched a so-called Plan D, aiming to encourage debate, dialogue, as well as democracy. That certainly all sounds very nice and long overdue. But the EU should instead devise a simple Plan B, where B stands for branding.

As the constitution fiasco proved, the EU can no longer afford to leave the selling of Europe in the hands of its member states. The EU must itself try to overcome the emotional barriers that continue to stand between it and the European citizenry. How should such a branding strategy work? As any nongovernmental organization can tell you, it is not sufficient to just do good, but it is essential to be seen doing good. Effective branding creates an emotional dimension with which people can identify. Dont just rebuild airports, open them with fanfare. Dont just fight international crime, take credit for each arrest. Dont just prevent conflicts, milk the EUs peace missions till the last drop.

If there is any lesson to be learned from Europes troubles, it is that the EU should study how the United States has created and maintained the vibrant and enduring vision of the American Dream. But rather than follow America along the road to federalism, Europe has to recapture popular imagination by restyling the EU as an effective force for good in Europe and beyond. The EU is the largest donor of humanitarian assistance in the world, and since December 2004, the EU has done most Balkan peacekeeping. The eurozone has successfully kept inflation down, despite warnings that Europes single currency would end in disaster. Only the EU can effectively deal with the challenges of globalization, be it in the financial, political, or cultural arenas.

Similarly, the EU should brand itself as a civic superpower, a reasonable global alternative to Pax Americana. The vast majority of Europeans remain skeptical about American ideas of preventive strikes and regime change by the sword. But that hardly implies that the EU should shy away from developing its defense capabilities. The EUs efforts to set up robust rapid-response forces capable of intervening in humanitarian crises around the world should be branded as a necessary component of Europes new civil responsibility. The EU should have used these forces to bring peace to desperate places such as Sudan, or similar cases of acute, obvious humanitarian catastrophes.

More broadly, the EU must update its founding myth (European integration brings peace), which is no longer credible to the younger generation. The spector of another Franco-German war (or any intra-European war) is simply too faint to command discipline and respect. Instead, Europe must find a new, postmodern raison dtre that inspires its own populace and appeals to the wider world. But, as the Dutch attempt to sell the European Constitution indicates all too clearly, awakening Europes old ghosts of war may be counterproductive. Sending out leaflets with facts and figures about the EU will not work; branding Europe is less about generating knowledge on what the EU is all about than it is about begetting affection.

That is why devising a new, appealing European Dream is so important. European citizens need to feel better and more confident about themselves to have a new sense of belonging and ownership of the European project. It is not sufficient to endow Europeans with a continental citizenship; these newborn Europeans have to carry their stylish burgundy EU passport with pride. Europes younger generations are predominantly postmaterialist, which implies that they are well-off enough to value tolerance and diversity and care more about self-expression than deference to authority. European citizens now look for an EU that reflects and stands up for their values, be it gender equality, the abolition of the death penalty, or the rejection of genetically modified foods.

The best way to create this sense of pride in European values is to turn it into a model for the rest of the world. In a world still dominated by modern and premodern regimes, the EU is the only international political space in the world where realpolitik has been conquered by a dense network of law, civility, and mutual trust. To be sure, European political life is not perfect. The riots in Frances main cities reveal that making Europes multicultural society a real success remains a major challenge. Although the EU is clearly a work in progress, Asians, Africans, and Latin Americans would love to have their own EU-style system in place in their neighborhoods. Europes social problems are small compared to the challenges that other continents face, and for ordinary people in the Middle East, the EU model for their own region may only figure in their wildest dreams. But if Germany and France can become friends after fighting three bloody wars within one century, why cant Israel and the Arab World, or India and Pakistan, emulate this remarkable success story? The European Dream is to domesticate global politics.

The EU should also shamelessly exploit its multicultural diversity. Europes union now comprises 25 countries whose history and geography are markedly different, but who nevertheless acknowledge that they ultimately share the same future. All EU member states have strong democratic traditions, even while their national interests are often at odds. From the vantage point of Europes Tower of Babel, it will be easier to internalize the opinions and interests of others. It implies that any EU policy backed by all (or most) member states carries credibility with outsiders. Especially now that accession negotiations with Turkey have begun, the EU can label itself as the political, cultural, and even religious bridge between Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. That offers the EU credibility and immense political capital and goodwill in the Middle East and beyond. The EU at 25 is such a patchwork of traditions, cultures, strategic outlooks, and national interests, that it can believably claim to offer policy solutions acceptable to much of the rest of the world.

The riots in France have not spilled over to the rest of Europe. It is remarkable that despite massive police maneuvers, riots have ended with few casualties. France and Europe are now increasing their efforts to integrate these disadvantaged groups of second- and third-generation immigrants. Both at home and abroad, the EU therefore already is the model of effective multilateralism. Europes policy debates are remarkably civil, and the trust among peoples as well as governments is unprecedented.

It is astonishing and deplorable that the EU undersells itself so dramatically. Acknowledging Europe as a force for good in the world will bring pride and self-confidence to Europeans, as well as respect and credibility abroad. For Europe, there are two options: brand or decline. The choice is clear.