As the EU stumbles, will its imitators fall?
There’s one angle that hasn’t received much attention as the EU struggles to save its currency and — to listen to certain European leaders — the whole European integration project: what effect will Europe’s travails have on the myriad copycat regional integration programs around the world? From the African Union to ASEAN to the Shanghai ...
There's one angle that hasn't received much attention as the EU struggles to save its currency and -- to listen to certain European leaders -- the whole European integration project: what effect will Europe's travails have on the myriad copycat regional integration programs around the world? From the African Union to ASEAN to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the Union of South African States, countries and leaders aspiring to greater regional integration have often pointed to the EU's success in an effort to boost their own projects. True, none of these other projects has gone nearly as far as the EU, but the vision of a peaceful, prosperous, and united Europe has been an important inspiration. What happens to these projects if the European model itself starts to crumble?
There’s one angle that hasn’t received much attention as the EU struggles to save its currency and — to listen to certain European leaders — the whole European integration project: what effect will Europe’s travails have on the myriad copycat regional integration programs around the world? From the African Union to ASEAN to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the Union of South African States, countries and leaders aspiring to greater regional integration have often pointed to the EU’s success in an effort to boost their own projects. True, none of these other projects has gone nearly as far as the EU, but the vision of a peaceful, prosperous, and united Europe has been an important inspiration. What happens to these projects if the European model itself starts to crumble?
South America’s latest integration project, UNASUR, appears particularly vulnerable. Founded in 2008, the grouping has often been seen as a rival to the far more established Organization of American States. It aspires to foster economic, defense, and perhaps even monetary union. And because the United States is not a member, it’s been able to present itself as a more authentic voice for the region.
Though the group remains unknown to most of the US public — and is rarely referred to by U.S. policy makers — it has, in the space of a few years, emerged as one of the Western Hemisphere’s leading multilateral bodies and, in the process, is rapidly undermining the regional clout of the Washington-based Organization of American States (OAS).
But recent events have not been kind. Last month, the young organization suffered the death of its secretary-general, Nestor Kirchner. In his short tenure, the former president of Argentina racked up several notable accomplishments, including facilitating a warming between feuding Colombia and Ecuador. (At the most recent UNASUR meeting, those countries announced the reestablishment of normal diplomatic relations.) No figure of Kirchner’s stature has yet stepped forward for the job, and most of South America’s leading lights appear not to be interested. Popular ex-Chilean president Michele Bachelet is busy with U.N. Women. Brazil’s Lula has said he’s out of the running. Absent a dynamic new leader, and in the context of a flailing Europe, the path toward regional integration looks more forbidding than it did a few years ago.
David Bosco is a professor at Indiana University’s Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies. He is the author of The Poseidon Project: The Struggle to Govern the World’s Oceans. Twitter: @multilateralist
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