EUROPEAN UNION

European Union

Abstract

This paper is aimed at making an understanding and comprehension about the dynamics of the European Union, and its impact on the global society. The paper discusses the various aspects and dimensions of the European Union and its role in the region and around the world.

Table of Contents

Abstractii

Introduction1

Historical Background1

The Different Dimensions of European Union's Role2

The Political Dimension: A Community of Democratic States2

The Security Dimension: The Politics of Democratic Peace3

The Economic Dimension of Europe: The Politics of the Single European Market4

The Social and Cultural Dimension: Towards a World Society5

European Union as a Global Force6

The European Union and the Institutions of Global Governance6

The European Union and Inter-Regional Cooperation8

Conclusion9

References10

European Union

Introduction

Europe has undergone many developments and changes in the political, social, economic and cultural dimensions during the past 50 years. All these developments have had a huge impact on the emergence of several aspects of the global governance agenda.

However, it has been just one among many such continental and regional expressions of this kind. In terms of definition, we must avoid conflating the concept of Europe as a multiple space in which actors shape a multilayer governance system, with the supranational organization, the European Union. There are different dimensions of Europe which create different organizational configurations. In turn, these are interconnected and feed off each other (Warleigh, 2008).

Historical Background

One can find the beginning of changeover from thinking about government to governance in the mid-1970s, the high days of the welfare state in most Western democracies. The emergence of the philosophy new public management created the conditions for the emergence of governance as a third form of coordination and organization besides governments and economies. Governance has elements of both. Hence, it is deemed a more efficient way of delivering public and private services, but it is definitely oriented towards flat hierarchy and horizontal structures.

One of the major transformations of world politics has been the emergence of what has been labeled 'global governance'. This concept is widely used in the institutions of the United Nations and implies the growing importance of a complex web of coordinating policy tasks undertaken at the global level. Examples of such coordinating tasks include the fund raising, organization and distribution of aid to catastrophe and war victims; the monitoring and control of infectious diseases; the negotiation and implementation of trade agreements; and the monitoring and control of global climate change.

What we are experiencing is the transition from an 'international society of states', which shared common rules of the game and a culture of behavior, towards a 'global society of states and non-state actors'. Global governance does acknowledge the important role that states still play in the world system, but recognizes that reality has become complex due to the emergence of new actors (Archer, 2008).

The Different Dimensions of European Union's Role

The Political Dimension: A Community of Democratic States

In respect of political integration, in Europe, the contribution of the European Union is of great relevance for the study of global governance, especially since the EU has expanded to have 27 ...