Friday

29th Mar 2024

EU needs "good laws and good armies"

The European Union must step up efforts to spread its version of law and order around the world if it is to avoid a September 11 of its own, says a top adviser to Javier Solana, the EU's foreign policy chief.

In a tribute to sixteenth-century Italian philosopher Niccolò Machiavelli, Robert Cooper, formerly chief foreign policy adviser to Tony Blair, said that "good laws and good armies" are the best weapons with which to defeat tyranny in the world. He explained by saying that laws are meaningless unless they can be enforced.

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Get the EU news that really matters

Instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

Mr Cooper, who has been described by one commentator as "a warrior espousing the rhetoric of 'enlightened' colonialism" was speaking in London at the launch of his new book, "The Breaking of Nations: Order and Chaos in the Twenty-First Century".

In his book, Mr Cooper divides countries into three types - the pre-modern nation, defined by chaos and lack of state control (such as pre-war Afghanistan), the modern nation state, and the post-modern world, into which the nation state is collapsing into a bigger order.

The European Union fits into this last category, whereas Mr Cooper sees the US as a modern state - which is why the Americans have less time for the United Nations than does Europe.

For the post-modern world to work, argues Mr Cooper, emerging entities such as the EU must realise that pre-modern countries are dangerous not because they are strong but because they are so weak that they can become ciphers for people such as Osama bin Laden.

Mr Cooper stressed that the key to world peace is making sure that war-torn countries do not become "failed states", like Somalia and the Congo in Africa. Such nations breed terrorism, he said.

He added that the struggle to prevent three countries on Europe's doorstep from becoming "failed states" - Bosnia, Kosovo and Macedonia - would be won, not through force, but because these nations wanted to become part of a greater European structure.

Mr Cooper, like his former boss Tony Blair, believes that the United States has nothing to fear from a more effective European defence force. He argues that the EU should support, rather than rival, NATO in its peace-keeping efforts.

Mr Cooper also said that he did not think that the EU would ever be in a position to compete militarily with the heavily-financed armed forces of the United States, and nor should they want to.

We are all friends with the US, noted Mr Cooper, and it is unthinkable to suggest that a strong EU military force would ever act against American foreign interests.

Opinion

EU Modernisation Fund: an open door for fossil gas in Romania

Among the largest sources of financing for energy transition of central and eastern European countries, the €60bn Modernisation Fund remains far from the public eye. And perhaps that's one reason it is often used for financing fossil gas projects.

'Swiftly dial back' interest rates, ECB told

Italian central banker Piero Cipollone in his first monetary policy speech since joining the ECB's board in November, said that the bank should be ready to "swiftly dial back our restrictive monetary policy stance."

Opinion

EU Modernisation Fund: an open door for fossil gas in Romania

Among the largest sources of financing for energy transition of central and eastern European countries, the €60bn Modernisation Fund remains far from the public eye. And perhaps that's one reason it is often used for financing fossil gas projects.

Latest News

  1. Kenyan traders react angrily to proposed EU clothes ban
  2. Lawyer suing Frontex takes aim at 'antagonistic' judges
  3. Orban's Fidesz faces low-polling jitters ahead of EU election
  4. German bank freezes account of Jewish peace group
  5. EU Modernisation Fund: an open door for fossil gas in Romania
  6. 'Swiftly dial back' interest rates, ECB told
  7. Moscow's terror attack, security and Gaza
  8. Why UK-EU defence and security deal may be difficult

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Nordic Council of MinistersJoin the Nordic Food Systems Takeover at COP28
  2. Nordic Council of MinistersHow women and men are affected differently by climate policy
  3. Nordic Council of MinistersArtist Jessie Kleemann at Nordic pavilion during UN climate summit COP28
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersCOP28: Gathering Nordic and global experts to put food and health on the agenda
  5. Friedrich Naumann FoundationPoems of Liberty – Call for Submission “Human Rights in Inhume War”: 250€ honorary fee for selected poems
  6. World BankWorld Bank report: How to create a future where the rewards of technology benefit all levels of society?

Join EUobserver

EU news that matters

Join us