Commenters across the web react to "The Myth of Europe."
- By Alessandra N. RamAlessandra N. Ram is a researcher at Foreign Policy.
“As to the critique that ‘the European Union was built on the myth that we are one people with one common destiny,’ one can only reply: so too were the nation-states that are taken for granted today.”
“Over the past 60 years, most of Europe has experienced an unprecedented era of peace.… The EU should certainly be given at least some of the credit for that.”
“In Europe, the Soviets and the Nazis discovered that even brutal force wasn’t enough to wipe out national identities.… If force couldn’t do it, is it really all that surprising that a legalistic treaty and a ‘government’ dominated by bureaucrats can’t do it either?”
“It would not be foolish optimism to see a common identity emerging from eventual acceptance of stronger, shared obligations to sustain the common welfare.”