The EU’s notion of territoriality: the “Westphalian Memory” vs. the “New Empire”. Consequences for the macro-regional dimension of the Adriatic Sea Region
Journal Title: Security Dimensions - Year 2013, Vol 10, Issue 10
Abstract
The creation of the European Union in 1992 reflected an attempt to rethink some of basic modern political concepts as national sovereignty and citizenship. But in recent years the European spatial development policy discourse has taken an evident territorial character with the enforcement of the idea of territorial cohesion and territorial continuity. The spatial predominant EU’s conception contributes to an evident emergence of a modern territorial building of the European space. Moreover, nowadays the instrument of hard and closed border and the sharp inside/outside dichotomy are accepted as the normality in Europe. Due to this notion of territoriality, the idea of the EU as a “non-Westphalian new empire” (according to the “neo-medieval paradigm”) is at least unrealistic. Its borders are getting more territorial, physical and visible, in deep contrast with an imperial historical structure. Hard border policies and practices on the borders mirror the existence of a de facto barrier and of a deep “Westphalian memory” in the way to use the territory as support of political unity. The EU’s drive to re-territorialise Europe is not a mere academic question; it has real consequences for people and places. Supra-nationalism reveals itself as a metaphor of “re-territorialization”, a paradox with strong political and economic consequences. In the macro-regional dimension of the Adriatic Sea region the EU’s “re-territorialisation” can impede seriously the cooperation across the EU’s external borders.<br/><br/>
Authors and Affiliations
Alessandro Vitale
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP376300
- DOI -
- Views 63
- Downloads 0
Environment adult education as a part of the social security policy
Environmental adult education for community sustainability situates local knowledge within a global pedagogy and activism of survival. Practical and theoretical considerations of environmental popular education within in...
Security management versus educational practice
Processes that accompany modern man, create a new framework for social life. The turn of the century changed the world, and in the same time the conditions in which man lives. As a result of emerging threats security has...
Importance of Weapons Amnesties in Slovakia
Weapons amnesty is closely related to internal order and security. These are important attributes that any democratic, based on the rule of law and consolidated state must protect. The ability of the state to sustain an...
Analysis of legal-organizational solutions of the participation of non-governmental organizations of a rescue character in the crisis management
This paper examines the history of a system of peer institutions in Ukraine. Expert Service is part of the expert support crime investigation and administration of justice in Ukraine, organizational structure which is en...
Technical protection of objects
The paper examines the issue of technical protection of objects. It deals with outsourcing of various types of electronic means as entry control system, electric fire signalling, camera systems and alarm security system...