Supranationalism

3 Key excerpts on "Supranationalism"

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  eBook - ePub

  Patriotism and the Cross

  A Theology of Nationalism

  • Glenn M. E. Duerr(Author)
  • 2020(Publication Date)
  • Resource Publications

    (Publisher)

  306 Although NATO is criticized for conducting costly exercises, and for only achieving limited successes, the organization generally completes baseline objectives for its respective missions. This provides greater security for the citizens of NATO member states.

  The continued existence of NATO, therefore, maintains unity within North American and European democratic states, most of which have a historically Christian connection. Predominantly Muslim states like Turkey and Albania have been reliable partners, for the most part, until more recently when Turkish President, Recep Erdoğan significantly took steps towards authoritarian rule.

  Conclusion

  Put simply, Supranationalism is particularly difficult to assess biblically—there are no specific sections of the Bible that explain what to do with regards to the EU in the twenty-first century. To some extent, that is the point: that Christians should wrestle with Scripture and to ascertain how to apply the Word of God.

  There is no mandate for a supranational bloc, but Christians should be reverent to forms of government. The entirety of the New Testament is set under the harsh authoritarian governance of the Roman Empire. Jesus himself admonished His followers to provide due reverence for Caesar. The apostle Paul, in Romans 13 , describes the necessary respect owed to one’s rulers who have been placed in that position by God, whether liked by the people or not. Supranationalism provides a different model of regional identity, which provides a counter to the Genesis 11 idea of organizing humanity towards global government, globalism. Regionalism is advocated under Supranationalism, not globalism; although the creation of supranational entities moves national identification closer to globalism than nationalism or patriotism on the continuum presented in chapter 1 .

  The best evidence for Supranationalism in Scripture comes from the book of 1 Kings. 1 Kings 5 , whilst beneficial for 20 years, began to unravel by the time the 1 Kings 9 account is written. The initial, bilateral deal did not equally benefit both trading partners. Additionally, the 1 Kings 5 account merely acknowledges trade between the kingdoms of Israel and Tyre; one assumption is that people have to move and live in the other kingdom, but Scripture does not record anyone moving permanently to the other kingdom to live and work, as compared to the EU model of open borders for travel under the Schengen zone. The example in Scripture also connotes that a trade deal must be updated periodically in order to work for the parties. While the EU in particular is regularly updated with new treaties; for example, Maastricht in 1992 , Amsterdam in 1997 , Nice in 2001 , and Lisbon in 20 09 ; there is not a regular opportunity to leave the organization willingly. The Brexit vote of June 2016 may have changed this oversight, but there are potential pitfalls of Brexit. Seemingly, membership should be more fluid, and less bureaucratic. The EU should respond to the governance needs of the citizens, rather than serving as an increasingly bureaucratic layer of governance over the lives of people. But, provided that the organization is voluntary, and in the 1 Kings 5

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  Comparative Regionalisms for Development in the 21st Century

  Insights from the Global South

  • Timothy M. Shaw, Emmanuel Fanta(Authors)
  • 2016(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  Notwithstanding the above, in the foreseeable future, states will remain important centres of governance. Nevertheless, in an attempt to face the challenges of globalization, states can turn to sub-national and world regions to complement and even strengthen their power. As such, the world of states will gradually become a world of states and regions. A world of states and regions could be an innovative approach that holds the promise of a renewed and better system of global and local governance. Within this development, regional integration has taken an important place since the mid-1980s. There has been not only a proliferation of various forms of regional integration processes on a global scale but also an unprecedented deepening of the process of European integration. The EU is the world’s most advanced form of supranational regionalism. It has managed to develop a model that incorporates political elements in a deep economic integration, and as such challenges existing assumptions about governance.

  This has important consequences for social policy. On the one hand, there is the issue of migration of some elements of social policy from the state level to either the supranational or sub-national level. On the other hand, there is the problématique of the interaction between these different governance levels. Progressively, the idea that the EU should strengthen its competences in the social area over the national member states has indeed gained ground. In this sense, the first steps made have been the introduction of the legally enforceable ‘acquis communautaire’ and the softer ‘acquis’, the Open Method of Coordination (OMC)4

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  Changing Borders in Europe

  Exploring the Dynamics of Integration, Differentiation and Self-Determination in the European Union

  • Jacint Jordana, Michael Keating, Axel Marx, Jan Wouters, Jacint Jordana, Michael Keating, Axel Marx, Jan Wouters(Authors)
  • 2018(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  1States, sovereignty, borders and self-determination in Europe

  Michael Keating, Jacint Jordana, Axel Marx and Jan Wouters

  Introduction

  The nation-state, as a territorially delimited polity, based on the principles of sovereignty and unity, had its birth in Europe. Yet it is in Europe that it has come under most challenge. There has been a shift in policymaking and political authority both to the supranational and the sub-state level, as well as to transnational spaces crossing state boundaries. The relationship between nation and state has come into question, as movements for self-determination have emerged or re-emerged. It might be thought that the process of supranational integration and state fragmentation are contradictory processes, but they can also be complementary processes, questioning old spatial hierarchies, and there are common features and causes in both cases. Yet no clear spatial order or hierarchy has been established to replace the old one. Europe has not become a state in its own right, nor have the existing states fragmented into their component parts, in spite of challenges in places like Catalonia, Scotland or Flanders. This was the challenge that inspired our project on which this book is based, that is to find new ways of understanding that do not simply reproduce the vocabulary of the nation-state. Our focus is on the European Union, itself contested between those who understand it as a project to rescue the nation-state and those who see it as the harbinger of a federal arrangement or a new form of political order altogether.

  In this opening chapter, we introduce the general framework and analyze the various transformative processes under the rubric of state transformation. It introduces key concepts that run through the following chapters including the inherently conditional and contested nature of the state, which is reconfiguring and rescaling in response to internal and external changes; the practical value of the concept of sovereignty for policymaking and government; the importance of territory and borders in politics; the notion of plurinationalism; and the key concept of self-determination. The chapter ends with a brief introduction into the structure of the book and the different contributions.

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