It has become fashionable to call almost all outlines, programs, or plans at whatever level and for whatever purpose a “strategy.” But one should not be misled. We have not all turned into little “Clausewitzes.” At least, it took us on a detour over the business world where classical military thinking outlived and inspired consultancies. The alleged rationality and efficiency with which private enterprises seek their advantage and exploit any weakness of their rivals seemed so compelling and their success so convincing that business strategies increasingly became the blueprint for politics. The high esteem of market logics peaked in the neoliberal reforms of the past twenty years and the call for liberalization and deregulation became the mantra of globalization. In the meantime, the state and civil society alike are permeated with market practices, principles, and values to a degree that the “social contract” on which every state is founded seems in danger of eroding.
With regard to the prevalence of the term “strategy,” the European Union constitutes no exception. It commands a plethora of strategies spanning literally all walks of life and covering almost every region around the globe. It has—to mention just a few—the EU2020 Strategy for Smart, Sustainable and Inclusive Growth, a strategy for food security, one for e-learning and for competitive transportation (Transport2050), an energy strategy, the Baltic Sea Strategy, the Strategy for the Mediterranean, the Joint Africa Strategy, the Sustainable Development Strategy, the European Security Strategy accompanied by the Counter-Terrorism Strategy and the Strategy Against the Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction. Moreover, the EU has built strategic partnerships with all the other global players, whether they are old, new, or emerging.
Unfortunately, all these strategies could not prevent the EU from gliding into uncertain waters. The current crisis is so severe that Europe is even in danger of losing the very foreign and security policy accomplishment which truly could be named “strategic”: the process of European integration itself.
It is therefore no surprise that the “strategic community” in Brussels and beyond is pressing ever more desperately for a “grand strategy” to stop Europe’s decline. In a similar vein, there are calls for re-energizing the faltering EU around new “strategic” projects. Again others suggest the need to invent a novel European narrative that would be more inducing in our times to close ranks behind the integration process and thus strengthen Europe’s role as a global actor. However, it remains unclear what the new story should be about. One problem is that there is simply no good enemy anymore. For Europe at least, Russia is too weak and China is too far away—and too interesting to do business with—to qualify for such a role.
What comes as a surprise is that many of those putting forward every reasonable argument for a grand strategy are still judging Europe’s fate by classical notions of power politics and by categories of war and peace. Accordingly, they are overemphasizing what a foreign and security policy could achieve. However, no power projection or diplomatic skills could revamp the Greek economy or put us back on track for growth rates high enough to overcome the economic and social heterogeneity under which the EU suffers.
Today, the global financial market sets the pace, making governments look much like the sorcerer’s apprentice. Neoliberal politics of the past have unleashed forces that national governments and even regional powers such as the EU are no longer able to contain. But if we need an enemy, private rating agencies would do. This is not to say that their ratings are wrong. Instead, they should remind us that in our history states were always more than mere marketplaces.
Ordinary citizens have seemed to sense for some time that events are driven less by our politicians at the helm and more so by the power of capital—or as we prefer to say, market forces. A great deal of citizens’ disenchantment with politics is rooted in a loss of confidence in their governments’ ability to cope with economic globalization. Instead, they witness unemployment on the rise and more and more public goods being privatized, thereby becoming less and less affordable. In addition, even among those member states with the best economic performance, wages have stagnated and the gap between rich and poor has widened. The growing legitimacy problem of the EU can in part be traced to the perception of its citizens that it is the EU that appears to be trading away precious achievements of the European social market model without gaining much in return.
We are now in an era in which all the former “national champions” and “European champions” have gone global, where new market opportunities have unfolded in emerging and low income countries, and where no amount of deregulation or liberalization within member states or the EU’s single market could bring back the comparative advantages that business is seeking. On the contrary, we need to re-establish the primacy of politics over the economy and put an end to the situation in which we can be blackmailed by the corporate world. Deregulation at any cost has not proven to be the silver bullet, especially if it is destroying the tax base and stopping governments from producing public goods.
Security is an eminent public good. We cannot live without it. Yet, security will only be assured if the necessary money is available and not lost by tax loopholes and offshore tax havens. For the strategic community it is high time to deal with political economics. This field should no longer be left to the mathematicians of collateral default swaps. The “collateral damage” is too high a price. It threatens social peace and undermines Europe’s defense and security as well as its role in the world. If Europe wants to be a strategic actor, it needs first and foremost strategies that reshape the economy in a way that it serves its citizens.
Stefani Weiss is a program director at the Bertelsmann Stiftung in Brussels.
To reinvigorate debate over European foreign policy and Europe’s role in the world, Carnegie Europe is publishing a series of essays from leading policymakers, diplomats, experts, and journalists on Strategic Europe over the coming weeks. A new essay will appear every day.
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