‘A constitution with no exits’
I distinctly remember coming across Martin Feldstein’s 1997 Foreign Affairs article on European monetary union and all but scoffing. He argued, in essence, that monetary union makes severe political tension and even military conflict more likely in Europe. The article struck me as absurdly gloomy — a cranky diatribe. A key insight from that article: ...
I distinctly remember coming across Martin Feldstein's 1997 Foreign Affairs article on European monetary union and all but scoffing. He argued, in essence, that monetary union makes severe political tension and even military conflict more likely in Europe. The article struck me as absurdly gloomy -- a cranky diatribe. A key insight from that article:
I distinctly remember coming across Martin Feldstein’s 1997 Foreign Affairs article on European monetary union and all but scoffing. He argued, in essence, that monetary union makes severe political tension and even military conflict more likely in Europe. The article struck me as absurdly gloomy — a cranky diatribe. A key insight from that article:
A critical feature of the EU in general and [monetary union] in particular is that there is no legitimate way for a member to withdraw. This is a marriage made in heaven that must last forever. But if countries discover that the shift to a single currency is hurting their economies and that the new political arrangements also are not to their liking, some of them will want to leave. The majority may not look kindly on secession, either out of economic self-interest or a more general concern about the stability of the entire union. The American experience with the secession of the South may contain some lessons about the danger of a treaty or constitution that has no exits.
Suffice to say that his take is looking less outlandish today, with senior European officials making pretty similar warnings.
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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