The European Union

The European Union represents one of the most ambitious political experiments in history: the voluntary integration of sovereign nation-states that had spent centuries at war with one another. What began in 1951 as the European Coal and Steel Community — a practical arrangement to make war between France and Germany 'not merely unthinkable, but materially impossible' — evolved into a union of 27 nations with a single market, shared currency, and common institutions.

The EU's development followed a logic of 'spillover,' where integration in one area created pressures for integration in others. The Common Market (1957) led to customs union, which led to the single market, which led to the euro. Each crisis — from the empty chair crisis of 1965 to the Eurozone debt crisis of 2010 — seemed to produce deeper integration rather than dissolution. The Schengen Area eliminated border controls; the European Court of Justice created a body of supranational law.

Yet the EU faces persistent tensions between national sovereignty and supranational governance. Brexit in 2020 showed that integration is not irreversible. Debates over immigration, economic policy, democratic legitimacy, and the pace of enlargement continue to test the union. Whether the EU represents the future of international cooperation or an overreach of bureaucratic ambition remains one of the great questions of contemporary politics.