
Wars have harmed our world more than anything else, and whenever an effort is made in any region for avoiding internal wars and conflicts, for greater unity and integration then this should be appreciated and other regions should try to learn from this.
In Europe wars of various countries within the continent had been very harmful in the 20th century, and so when an effort was made to avoid such wars and establish internal peace by bringing most countries together in a union, to increase economic and other cooperation, to enable people to freely move from one country to another and to set up standards of democratic freedoms and human rights for all member countries then this was a step forward for the entire world as it sets an example which other regions can follow to achieve at least some important good results.
This is an important achievement of the European Union but there are other less happy aspects which need to be considered in any unbiased evaluation of the European Union. The former Yugoslavia suffered much internal violence in the course of disintegration and parts of it were bombed in very cruel ways in an operation led by the USA but having the support of leading European countries. Two of the largest European countries have been at war for over two years and the role of most other European countries has been not to bring peace but to prolong the war in some ways. The dangers of a wider war within Europe have increased. The danger of exchange of nuclear weapons within Europe has also increased, not decreased, in very recent times. Some of the most important countries of Europe are still outside the European Union. Economic cooperation and trade between some of the most important countries has suffered in recent times.
What is more, several important leaders of Europe and the European Union have been speaking the language of war escalation and even war-mongering in recent times, raising serious questions regarding their commitment to peace. Some European countries which for long took pride in their neutrality have given this up, have become more implicated in big power rivalry by taking sides, thereby reducing rather than increasing their own security and at the same time reducing their role as forces of mediation and peace. Within various European countries, including those who take pride in being the more mature democracies, basic democratic freedoms have been trampled upon in some contexts.
European countries have been involved in the most unjust attacks on some countries of the global south, and have even been complicit in the ongoing genocidal actions in Gaza by supplying lots of weapons and important diplomatic support to Israel.
Hence to the extent that the European unity project was based on learning from history for achieving peace, this was only limited and opportunistic learning–embracing peace when this is found to be in self-interest, abandoning it altogether when narrow (and short-term) self-interest sends other signals.
Most European countries continue to be members of NATO, with all the implications of serving the interests of the most powerful military alliance based on world dominance, which is guided increasingly by offensive and aggressive agenda instead of its declared defensive one, becoming a major threat to world peace.
One of the most important factors behind the increasing existential threats in world is that the USA is increasingly guided by a very dangerous agenda of securing world dominance as its foremost objective, an agenda which is bound to keep disrupting world peace in many ways. If most European countries become junior partners in the pursuit of such an agenda then their claim to being a force of peace is seriously negated.
The agenda of foreign trade, investment and economic power as it exists today is rigged in favor of the richest countries and against the poorer countries. The more powerful European countries stand on the side of the rich, of course. They are also associated closely with their several giant multinational companies involved in the export of highly hazardous technologies and products, even badly and perhaps permanently contaminating the food and farming system. There is hardly any commitment to instead make up for the centuries of colonial exploitation. Instead a prominent leader talked of only Europe creating beautiful gardens, forgetting who were exploited for this.
Hence the very limited self-interest based learning from history and announcing a highly distorted agenda of ‘peace’ based on this limited comprehension will not take Europe very far. The contradictions of such a limited and distorted understanding keep emerging time and again, entangling Europe in many tensions and problems. If at the end of all the brave talk and intellectual gymnastics, what ultimately emerges is largely the junior partnership of the most powerful country bent on an inherently destructive hegemonic agenda, then clearly Europe has not become a force for peace and justice. As in the past, essentially it remains complicit in the destruction of distant countries, and in addition continues increasingly to expose its own population to the dangers of highly destructive wars and weapons.
Europe with all its educational advances, great universities and intellectual accomplishments should have the capacity for an unbiased and realistic appreciation of what it has been able to achieve and what it could not, what dangers it should avoid and what opportunities it should embrace. Basically, Europe should try to achieve peace with justice within Europe, as well as to be a firm force for peace with justice at world level. This will also help to create conditions for continuing pursuit of environment protection and sustainable development. Europe with its historical and cultural ties to the USA, on people to people basis, is also best suited to moving the USA in the direction of peace and away from hegemony, and this can be historically a very important role in the overall quest for creating a safer world.
Bharat Dogra is Honorary Convener, Campaign to Save Earth Now. His recent books include Protecting Earth for Children, Planet in Peril, A Day in 2071 and Man over Machine.