Mungiu-Pippidi, Alina

The Endless Game of Bounding Europe - 2003.


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Where should Europe end? This paper sketches an analytical framework to answer this question. After defining the paradox of the European borders as 'a strongly instrumentalized fuzzy identity', the paper identifies three categories of challenges: geographical, cultural and political. Although public opinion surveys show no clear evidence of 'clash of civilizations' creating a divide across Europe, borders of development do separate the continent in two, and addressing it needs more creative policies than the former conditionality-based enlargement. The paper argues for keeping an ambiguous and undefined border of Europe which would allow further 'rolling' enlargement, as Europe's power as an emulator is far from being exhausted. As a tradeoff between future enlargement and a concentration of decision with core members seems inevitable, the paper argues that the most important historical role Europe can play for the rest of the world in the future is to bring prosperity and inclusion to its neighbors to the south and east, be they Orthodox or Muslim.