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Anxiety, Dissonance and Imperial Amnesia of the European Union

Year 2022, , 49 - 64, 09.04.2022
https://doi.org/10.33458/uidergisi.1085564

Abstract

According to the master commemorative narrative of the EU, the European integration project represents a break with the violent European past characterised by fragmentation and nationalism, which culminated in World War Two and the crimes of Nazism and Stalinism. However, recent scholarship has criticised the omission of 19th and 20th-century European colonialism from the memory narratives advanced by the EU. In this article, I use the permanent exhibition in the House of European History (HEH) in Brussels to take this insight one step further and make two arguments. Firstly, I show that it is not only colonialism that is erased from official memory but, more broadly, empires and imperialism, although most European history over the past 2000 years was imperial. Secondly, I understand this “imperial amnesia” as an anxiety-controlling mechanism aimed at reducing the dissonance between the self-proclaimed image of a normative and civilian power on the one hand and imperial-like tendencies in its behaviour on the other.

References

  • Barroso, Jose Manuel (4 September 2012), Speech by President Barroso to European Union Heads of Delegation, Annual Conference of EU Heads of Delegation, EUSR and Chargés d’Affaires /Brussels, http://europa.eu/rapid/pressrelease_SPEECH-12-585_en.htm (Accessed 11 January 2022).
  • Becker, Carl (1958). “What Are Historical Facts?”, Phil Snyder (ed.), Detachment and the Writing of History: Essays and Letters of Carl L. Becker. Ithaca, Cornell University Press.
  • Bechev, Dimitar (2014). “From the Soviet Bloc to the New Middle Ages: East-Central Europe’s Three Imperial Moments”, Kalypso Nicolaïdis, Berny Sèbe and Gabrielle Maas (eds.), Echoes of Empire: Memory, Identity and Colonial Legacies. London, IB Tauris, 2014, p. 251-267.
  • Behr, Hartmut and Yannis A. Stivachtis (eds.) (2015.) Revisiting the European Union as Empire, London, Routledge.
  • Buettner, Elizabeth (2016). Europe after Empire: Decolonization, Society and Culture. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
  • Buettner, Elizabeth (2018). “What–and who–is ‘European’ in the Postcolonial EU? Inclusions and Exclusions in the European Parliament’s House of European History”, BMGN-Low Countries Historical Review, Vol. 133 No 4, p. 132-148.
  • Calligaro, Oriane (2015). “Legitimation Through Remembrance? The Changing Regimes of Historicity of European Integration”, Journal of Contemporary European Studies, Vol. 3, No 3, p. 330-343.
  • Chandler, David (2006). Empire in Denial: The Politics of State-Building. London, Pluto.
  • Del Sarto, Raffaella A. (2016). “Normative Empire Europe: The European Union, its Borderlands and the ‘Arab Spring’”, JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies, Vol. 54, No 2, p. 215–232.
  • Diez, Thomas and Richard Whitman (2002). “Analysing European Integration: Reflecting on the English School”, JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies, Vol. 40, No 1, p. 43-67.
  • Duchêne, François (1973). “The European Community and the Uncertainties of Interdependence”, Max Kohnstamm and Wolfgang Hager (eds.), A Nation Writ Large? Foreign-Policy Problems Before the European Community. London, Macmillan.
  • Ejdus, Filip (2018). “Local Ownership as International Governmentality: Evidence from the EU Mission in the Horn of Africa”, Contemporary Security Policy, Vol. 39, No 1, p. 28-50.
  • European Community (1 July 2003) “Communication from the Commission: Paving the way for a New Neighborhood Instrument” http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/sources/docoffic/official/communic/wider/wider_en.pdf (Accessed 12 January 2022).
  • European Parliament (2008) Committee of Experts House of European History, Conceptual Basis for a House of European History, Brussels: European Parliament, https://www.europarl.europa.eu/meetdocs/2004_2009/documents/ dv/745/745721/745721_en.pdf (Accessed 11 January 2022).
  • European Parliament (2013) Building a House of European History, http://www.europarl.europa.eu/ tenders/2013/20130820b/Annex_I- Building_a_House_of_European_History.pdf (Accessed 11 January 2022).
  • Foster, Russel (2015) Mapping European Empire: Tabulae Imperii Europaei. London, Routledge.
  • Ghervas, Stella (2014). “Antidotes to Empire: From the Congress System to the European Union”, John W. Boyer and Berthold Molden (eds.), EUtROPEs: The Paradox of European Empire. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 2014, p. 49-81.
  • Giddens, Anthony (1991). Modernity and Self-Identity. Cambridge, Polity Press.
  • Halbwachs, Maurice (1980). The Collective Memory. New York, Harper & Row Colophon Books.
  • Hansen Peo and Stefan Jonsson (2014). Eurafrica: The Untold History of European Integration and Colonialism. London, Bloomsbury Publishing.
  • Hettne, Bjorn and Fredrik Soderbaum (2005). “Civilian Power or Soft Imperialism-The EU as a Global Actor and the Role of Interregionalism”, European Foreign Affairs Review, Vol. 10, No 4, p. 535-552.
  • Higashino, Atsuko (2004). “For the Sake of ‘Peace and Security’? The Role of Security in the European Union Enlargement Eastwards”, Cooperation and Conflict, Vol. 39, No 4, p. 347-368.
  • House of European History (2018). Pocket Guide. https://historia-europa.ep.eu/en/mission-vision (Accessed 11 January 2022).
  • Kaiser, Wolfram (2017). “Limits of Cultural Engineering: Actors and Narratives in the European Parliament’s House of European History Project”, JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies, Vol. 55, No 3, p. 518-534.
  • Khanna, Parag (2004). “The Metrosexual Superpower”, Foreign Policy, July/August.
  • Korosteleva, Elena A. (2011). “Change or Continuity: Is the Eastern Partnership an Adequate Tool for the European Neighbourhood?”, International Relations, Vol. 25, No 2, p. 243-262.
  • Leonard, Mark (2005). Why Europe Will Run the 21st Century. London, Fourth Estate.
  • Lundestad, Geir (1986). “Empire by Invitation? The United States and Western Europe, 1945-1952”, Journal of Peace Reesearch, Vol. 23, No 3, pp. 263-277.
  • Mahony, Honor (11 July 2007). “Barroso Says EU is an Empire”, EU observer, https://euobserver.com/institutional/24458 (Accessed 11 January 2022).
  • Mälksoo, Maria (2009). “The Memory Politics of Becoming European: The East European Subalterns and the Collective Memory of Europe”, European Journal of International Relations, Vol. 15, No 4, p. 653-680.
  • Manners, Ian (2010). “Global Europa: Mythology of the European Union in World Politics”, JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies, Vol. 48, No 1, p.67- 87.
  • Mitzen, Jennifer and Kyle Larson (2017). “Ontological Security and Foreign Policy”, Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Politics. Nexon, Daniel H., and, Thomas Wright (2007). “What’s at Stake in the American Empire Debate”, American Political Science Review, Vol. 101, No 2, p. 253-271.
  • Pasture, Patrick (2015). Imagining European Unity Since 1000 AD. London, Palgrave.
  • Puri, Samir (2020). The Great Imperial Hangover: How Empires Have Shaped the World, London, Atlantic Books. Schlag, Gabi (2012). “Into the ‘Heart of Darkness’—EU’s Civilising Mission in the DR Congo”, Journal of International Relations and Development, Vol. 15, No 3, p. 321-344.
  • Settele, Veronika (2015) “Including Exclusion in European Memory? Politics of Remembrance at the House of European History”, Journal of Contemporary European Studies, Vol. 23, No 3, p.405-416.
  • Sierp, Aline (2020). “EU Memory Politics and Europe’s Forgotten Colonial Past”, Interventions, Vol. 22, No 6, p. 686-702. Skalnes, Lars S. (2005). “Geopolitics and the Eastern Enlargement of the European Union”, Frank Schimmelfennig and Ulrich Sedelmeier (eds), The Politics of European Union Enlargement: Theoretical Approaches. London, Routledge, 2005, p. 213–233.
  • Stivachtis, Yannis A. (2013). “The English School and the Concept of ‘Empire’: Theoretical and Practical/Political Implications”, Global Discourse, Vol. 3, No 1, p. 129-135.
  • Zerubavel, Yael (1995). Recovered Roots: Collective Memory and the Making of Israeli National Tradition. Chicago, University of Chicago Press.
  • Zielonka, Jan (2007). Europe as Empire: the Nature of the Enlarged European Union. Oxford, Oxford University Press.
  • Zielonka, Jan (2015). “The Uses and Misuses of the Imperial Paradigm in the Study of European Integration”, Hartmut Behr and Yannis A. Stivachtis (eds), Revisiting the European Union as Empire. London, Routledge, p. 45- 59.
  • Wagner, Wolfgang (2017). “Liberal Power Europe”, JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies, Vol. 55, No 6, p. 1398-1414. Waterfield, Bruno (11 July 2007). “Barroso Hails the European Empire”, Telegraph, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1557143/Barroso-hails-the-European-empire.html (Accessed 11 January 2022).

Avrupa Birliği’nin Kaygı, Uyumsuzluk ve Emperyal Unutkanlığı

Year 2022, , 49 - 64, 09.04.2022
https://doi.org/10.33458/uidergisi.1085564

Abstract

Avrupa Birliği’nin hakim hatıra anlatısına göre; Avrupa entegrasyon projesi, İkinci Dünya Savaşı, Nazizim ve Stalinizmin suçlarıyla doruğa çıkan parçalanma ve milliyetçilikle şekillenen şiddetli Avrupa geçmişini geride bırakmayı temsil etmektedir. Fakat güncel çalışmalar; XIX. ve XX. yüzyıldaki Avrupa sömürgeciliğinin, AB tarafından geliştirilen bellek anlatılarından çıkarılmasını eleştirmektedir. Bu makalede, Brüksel’deki Avrupa Tarihi Evi’ndeki daimi sergiyi bu gözlemi bir adım daha ileri götürmek ve iki argüman daha oluşturmak için kullanıyorum. İlk olarak, son 2000 yıldaki Avrupa tarihinin çoğu emperyal olmasına rağmen, resmi bellekten silinenin sadece sömürgecilik değil, daha geniş anlamda imparatorluklar ve emperyalizm olduğunu gösteriyorum. İkinci olarak ise, “emperyal unutkanlığı”nı, kendi kendini ilan eden normatif ve sivil bir güç imajıyla davranışlarındaki emperyal benzeri eğilimler arasındaki uyumsuzluğu azaltmayı amaçlayan kaygı kontrol mekanizması olarak tasavvur ediyorum.

References

  • Barroso, Jose Manuel (4 September 2012), Speech by President Barroso to European Union Heads of Delegation, Annual Conference of EU Heads of Delegation, EUSR and Chargés d’Affaires /Brussels, http://europa.eu/rapid/pressrelease_SPEECH-12-585_en.htm (Accessed 11 January 2022).
  • Becker, Carl (1958). “What Are Historical Facts?”, Phil Snyder (ed.), Detachment and the Writing of History: Essays and Letters of Carl L. Becker. Ithaca, Cornell University Press.
  • Bechev, Dimitar (2014). “From the Soviet Bloc to the New Middle Ages: East-Central Europe’s Three Imperial Moments”, Kalypso Nicolaïdis, Berny Sèbe and Gabrielle Maas (eds.), Echoes of Empire: Memory, Identity and Colonial Legacies. London, IB Tauris, 2014, p. 251-267.
  • Behr, Hartmut and Yannis A. Stivachtis (eds.) (2015.) Revisiting the European Union as Empire, London, Routledge.
  • Buettner, Elizabeth (2016). Europe after Empire: Decolonization, Society and Culture. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
  • Buettner, Elizabeth (2018). “What–and who–is ‘European’ in the Postcolonial EU? Inclusions and Exclusions in the European Parliament’s House of European History”, BMGN-Low Countries Historical Review, Vol. 133 No 4, p. 132-148.
  • Calligaro, Oriane (2015). “Legitimation Through Remembrance? The Changing Regimes of Historicity of European Integration”, Journal of Contemporary European Studies, Vol. 3, No 3, p. 330-343.
  • Chandler, David (2006). Empire in Denial: The Politics of State-Building. London, Pluto.
  • Del Sarto, Raffaella A. (2016). “Normative Empire Europe: The European Union, its Borderlands and the ‘Arab Spring’”, JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies, Vol. 54, No 2, p. 215–232.
  • Diez, Thomas and Richard Whitman (2002). “Analysing European Integration: Reflecting on the English School”, JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies, Vol. 40, No 1, p. 43-67.
  • Duchêne, François (1973). “The European Community and the Uncertainties of Interdependence”, Max Kohnstamm and Wolfgang Hager (eds.), A Nation Writ Large? Foreign-Policy Problems Before the European Community. London, Macmillan.
  • Ejdus, Filip (2018). “Local Ownership as International Governmentality: Evidence from the EU Mission in the Horn of Africa”, Contemporary Security Policy, Vol. 39, No 1, p. 28-50.
  • European Community (1 July 2003) “Communication from the Commission: Paving the way for a New Neighborhood Instrument” http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/sources/docoffic/official/communic/wider/wider_en.pdf (Accessed 12 January 2022).
  • European Parliament (2008) Committee of Experts House of European History, Conceptual Basis for a House of European History, Brussels: European Parliament, https://www.europarl.europa.eu/meetdocs/2004_2009/documents/ dv/745/745721/745721_en.pdf (Accessed 11 January 2022).
  • European Parliament (2013) Building a House of European History, http://www.europarl.europa.eu/ tenders/2013/20130820b/Annex_I- Building_a_House_of_European_History.pdf (Accessed 11 January 2022).
  • Foster, Russel (2015) Mapping European Empire: Tabulae Imperii Europaei. London, Routledge.
  • Ghervas, Stella (2014). “Antidotes to Empire: From the Congress System to the European Union”, John W. Boyer and Berthold Molden (eds.), EUtROPEs: The Paradox of European Empire. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 2014, p. 49-81.
  • Giddens, Anthony (1991). Modernity and Self-Identity. Cambridge, Polity Press.
  • Halbwachs, Maurice (1980). The Collective Memory. New York, Harper & Row Colophon Books.
  • Hansen Peo and Stefan Jonsson (2014). Eurafrica: The Untold History of European Integration and Colonialism. London, Bloomsbury Publishing.
  • Hettne, Bjorn and Fredrik Soderbaum (2005). “Civilian Power or Soft Imperialism-The EU as a Global Actor and the Role of Interregionalism”, European Foreign Affairs Review, Vol. 10, No 4, p. 535-552.
  • Higashino, Atsuko (2004). “For the Sake of ‘Peace and Security’? The Role of Security in the European Union Enlargement Eastwards”, Cooperation and Conflict, Vol. 39, No 4, p. 347-368.
  • House of European History (2018). Pocket Guide. https://historia-europa.ep.eu/en/mission-vision (Accessed 11 January 2022).
  • Kaiser, Wolfram (2017). “Limits of Cultural Engineering: Actors and Narratives in the European Parliament’s House of European History Project”, JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies, Vol. 55, No 3, p. 518-534.
  • Khanna, Parag (2004). “The Metrosexual Superpower”, Foreign Policy, July/August.
  • Korosteleva, Elena A. (2011). “Change or Continuity: Is the Eastern Partnership an Adequate Tool for the European Neighbourhood?”, International Relations, Vol. 25, No 2, p. 243-262.
  • Leonard, Mark (2005). Why Europe Will Run the 21st Century. London, Fourth Estate.
  • Lundestad, Geir (1986). “Empire by Invitation? The United States and Western Europe, 1945-1952”, Journal of Peace Reesearch, Vol. 23, No 3, pp. 263-277.
  • Mahony, Honor (11 July 2007). “Barroso Says EU is an Empire”, EU observer, https://euobserver.com/institutional/24458 (Accessed 11 January 2022).
  • Mälksoo, Maria (2009). “The Memory Politics of Becoming European: The East European Subalterns and the Collective Memory of Europe”, European Journal of International Relations, Vol. 15, No 4, p. 653-680.
  • Manners, Ian (2010). “Global Europa: Mythology of the European Union in World Politics”, JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies, Vol. 48, No 1, p.67- 87.
  • Mitzen, Jennifer and Kyle Larson (2017). “Ontological Security and Foreign Policy”, Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Politics. Nexon, Daniel H., and, Thomas Wright (2007). “What’s at Stake in the American Empire Debate”, American Political Science Review, Vol. 101, No 2, p. 253-271.
  • Pasture, Patrick (2015). Imagining European Unity Since 1000 AD. London, Palgrave.
  • Puri, Samir (2020). The Great Imperial Hangover: How Empires Have Shaped the World, London, Atlantic Books. Schlag, Gabi (2012). “Into the ‘Heart of Darkness’—EU’s Civilising Mission in the DR Congo”, Journal of International Relations and Development, Vol. 15, No 3, p. 321-344.
  • Settele, Veronika (2015) “Including Exclusion in European Memory? Politics of Remembrance at the House of European History”, Journal of Contemporary European Studies, Vol. 23, No 3, p.405-416.
  • Sierp, Aline (2020). “EU Memory Politics and Europe’s Forgotten Colonial Past”, Interventions, Vol. 22, No 6, p. 686-702. Skalnes, Lars S. (2005). “Geopolitics and the Eastern Enlargement of the European Union”, Frank Schimmelfennig and Ulrich Sedelmeier (eds), The Politics of European Union Enlargement: Theoretical Approaches. London, Routledge, 2005, p. 213–233.
  • Stivachtis, Yannis A. (2013). “The English School and the Concept of ‘Empire’: Theoretical and Practical/Political Implications”, Global Discourse, Vol. 3, No 1, p. 129-135.
  • Zerubavel, Yael (1995). Recovered Roots: Collective Memory and the Making of Israeli National Tradition. Chicago, University of Chicago Press.
  • Zielonka, Jan (2007). Europe as Empire: the Nature of the Enlarged European Union. Oxford, Oxford University Press.
  • Zielonka, Jan (2015). “The Uses and Misuses of the Imperial Paradigm in the Study of European Integration”, Hartmut Behr and Yannis A. Stivachtis (eds), Revisiting the European Union as Empire. London, Routledge, p. 45- 59.
  • Wagner, Wolfgang (2017). “Liberal Power Europe”, JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies, Vol. 55, No 6, p. 1398-1414. Waterfield, Bruno (11 July 2007). “Barroso Hails the European Empire”, Telegraph, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1557143/Barroso-hails-the-European-empire.html (Accessed 11 January 2022).
There are 41 citations in total.

Details

Primary Language English
Subjects Political Science
Journal Section Research Article
Authors

Filip Ejdus This is me 0000-0001-7443-1661

Publication Date April 9, 2022
Published in Issue Year 2022

Cite

APA Ejdus, F. (2022). Anxiety, Dissonance and Imperial Amnesia of the European Union. Uluslararası İlişkiler Dergisi, 19(73), 49-64. https://doi.org/10.33458/uidergisi.1085564
AMA Ejdus F. Anxiety, Dissonance and Imperial Amnesia of the European Union. uidergisi. April 2022;19(73):49-64. doi:10.33458/uidergisi.1085564
Chicago Ejdus, Filip. “Anxiety, Dissonance and Imperial Amnesia of the European Union”. Uluslararası İlişkiler Dergisi 19, no. 73 (April 2022): 49-64. https://doi.org/10.33458/uidergisi.1085564.
EndNote Ejdus F (April 1, 2022) Anxiety, Dissonance and Imperial Amnesia of the European Union. Uluslararası İlişkiler Dergisi 19 73 49–64.
IEEE F. Ejdus, “Anxiety, Dissonance and Imperial Amnesia of the European Union”, uidergisi, vol. 19, no. 73, pp. 49–64, 2022, doi: 10.33458/uidergisi.1085564.
ISNAD Ejdus, Filip. “Anxiety, Dissonance and Imperial Amnesia of the European Union”. Uluslararası İlişkiler Dergisi 19/73 (April 2022), 49-64. https://doi.org/10.33458/uidergisi.1085564.
JAMA Ejdus F. Anxiety, Dissonance and Imperial Amnesia of the European Union. uidergisi. 2022;19:49–64.
MLA Ejdus, Filip. “Anxiety, Dissonance and Imperial Amnesia of the European Union”. Uluslararası İlişkiler Dergisi, vol. 19, no. 73, 2022, pp. 49-64, doi:10.33458/uidergisi.1085564.
Vancouver Ejdus F. Anxiety, Dissonance and Imperial Amnesia of the European Union. uidergisi. 2022;19(73):49-64.