Letters From a Young Contrarian

It did not take long for the howls of derision to begin after the Nobel Foundation awarded the Nobel Peace Prize to the European Union. A sneering tone was detectable across Twitter and even in the pages of fair-minded magazines like Foreign Policy, in which Daniel W. Drezner labeled the EU victory “humorous” and an award for “the greatest hits of the past.” The tone was dismissive, odious, and repugnant. It reflects a total failure to recognize and appreciate the historic accomplishments of the European Union — but also the work it continues to do to eliminate economic barriers and foster international and interethnic cooperation, on a continent that was for centuries stuck in a cycle of perpetual war.

Consider that in the time between the conclusion of the American Civil War — the last occasion of ground combat on U.S. soil — and the signing of the 1951 agreement to forge the EU’s predecessor, the European Coal and Steel Community, the peoples of Europe endured years of bloody conflict, some of it just but mostly needless. The list includes not just the two world wars and the tragedy of the Holocaust, but clashes between France and Prussia, Prussia and Austria, Russia and Turkey, Turkey and Greece, as well as innumerable skirmishes in the Balkans.

It is all the more remarkable that relationships as historically polarized as the ones between France and Germany, or Germany and the United Kingdom, have been able to organize a new continental order based upon a single common market, the cornerstones of which are the free movement of people, goods, services, and capital. Notable, too, is the evolution of the European Union from a commercial endeavor into a political enterprise with elected representatives from all member states making up a transcontinental parliament.

Read more: http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/10/why-the-european-union-deserves-the-nobel-peace-prize/263560/