Europe facing the challenge of a rising multipolar world
Professor Zeitlin and UvA colleagues receive grant for research into the EU’s future role
China, India, Brazil, and other emerging economies are fast on their way to becoming leading players in the global economy. This may lead to the rise of a new multipolar world order. What effect will these developments have on the position and role of the European Union in the near future? This is one of the key issues to be addressed in a large-scale study conducted by 16 institutions and universities, the University of Amsterdam among them.
China, India, Brazil, and other emerging economies are fast on their way to becoming leading players in the global economy. This may lead to the rise of a new multipolar world order in which the various continents will be required to redefine their positions. What effect will these developments have on the position and role of the European Union in the near future? This is one of the key issues to be addressed in a large-scale study conducted by 16 institutions and universities, the University of Amsterdam among them.‘At present, power in the world is distributed across various centres. One of these is Europe. We cannot simply assume that the European Union will continue to occupy such an important position as a matter of course,' says Zeitlin, professor of Public Policy and Governance. ‘If we wish to say anything sensible about this and respond adequately to the situation, we will need to formulate an answer to the question of which networks (and types of networks) play an important role, at present and in the future. Consider, for example, the superpowers of the twentieth century, the rising superpowers of the twenty-first century, and the new regulatory networks created by public and private policymakers.'
Traumatic experience
A fear of the future plays an important part in these issues, according to the professor. ‘Just take the fear that the European market will be pushed to the background by other players, or doubts about Europe's capacity to play a leading role. Take the failed climate summit, for example: the role of the EU was marginalised during these conferences, which was a traumatic experience for policymakers.' No matter how you look at it, fear is a bad counsellor. The European Union is in need of ideas on which to base its strategy for the future - reason enough to approach Zeitlin and his colleagues for advice. Daniel Mügge and other researchers of the AISSR programma group 'Political Economy and Transnational Governance (PETGOV) also participate in the research project.Innovative approach
In meeting these new external challenges, Zeitlin argues that the EU may be able to build on recent innovations in its own internal governance, based on framework rule-making and revision through coordinated learning from local implementation experience. This innovative approach, which Zeitlin calls "experimentalist governance", has enabled the EU in many policy fields to produce high-quality, up-to-date rules capable of broad application across a diverse polity of 500 million inhabitants and 27 member states.
In addition to the University of Amsterdam, participants include the University of Warwick (coordinator), the Université Libre de Bruxelles (Belgium), the Copehnhagen Business School, the University of Cape Town (South Africa) and Waseda University (Japan). The European Union is making a total of € 9.5 million available for this study, which will be starting in March 2011 and will run for four years.
Author: Esther van Bochove, FMG Communications