Why Europe will run the 21st century

What Europe has, argues Mark Leonard in his provocatively titled book, Why Europe Will Run the 21st Century, is a model, one centered around a new understanding of power and embodied in the institutions and norms of the European Union. The EU exerts an irresistible attraction on the countries around it, Leonard says, drawing them into its orbit, embedding them in its legal and economic framework and changing them from the inside out. Next to this "transformative power," the United States' military might, which can change regimes but not societies, and whose application is necessarily fleeting, seems a weak instrument indeed. Increasingly, Leonard tells us, we'll see more regional groupings emerge bound, as the EU is, by mutual self-interest and common values. It's in this sense, he argues, that Europe--or, more precisely, the "European way"--will dominate the 21st century.

Leonard is Director of Foreign Policy at the Center for European Reform in London, where he works on transatlantic and EU-China relations. He recently spoke with Mother Jones by phone from the UK.

Mother Jones: As we're forever being told, the United States is the most powerful country in the history of the world and is likely to remain so, even as China rises, for the foreseeable future. But you're arguing that this view rests on a minsunderstanding of power. How so?

Mark Leonard: My book isn't about Europe so much as it's about power, and how you go about getting your way and acting in the world. I'm not arguing that Europe will be the most vibrant economic bloc in the world or that it will have the biggest army; I'm saying that the European way of doing things, the European model, will change the way the world works.

What we're coming to realize is that the classic 19th century idea of power is coming unstuck in an interdependent, globalized world. In this world, military power is still important, but it's becoming less so, and the price for using it is much higher than before, as the US has found in Iraq.

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2005/10/why-europe-will-run-21st-century