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Thoughts on the Peace Prize

Europe has not experienced a major war in the last six decades. Today a European civil war, with the ensuing international spillover, is simply unthinkable. That we take this for granted is extraordinary, given that for centuries Europeans have been solely committed to the art of exterminating each other in ever more gruesome ways. Kudos.

But to whom? Why the European Union? As Stephen Walt points out, it is not the sole architect of European integration. Regardless of their benevolence -or lack of it– as hegemons, the US and the Soviet Union deserve credit for enforcing peace in Europe. So do Monet, Schuman, Adenauer or de Gaspieri, who (unlike their omnipresent counterparts in the US) are barely remembered by most Europeans.

Moreover, why award the Prize now? The high-water mark of European integration took place during the nineties. After some initial hysteria the European Economic Community accepted German reunification, launched a project of monetary union, and morphed into the European Union. Since then the project has gained width, but not much depth –unless the Bundesbank’s impositions are a synonym of increasing integration.

The obvious answer is this Peace Prize was awarded for political reasons (i.e. concern with increasing disillusionment toward the European project and a possible breakup of the euro) rather than the ones listed on its website.  Nothing new about this –Obama won one for not-being-Bush, and V. S. Naipaul received the Literature Prize in 2001. In fact, the list of winners –Henry Kissinger, Menachem Begim, Yasser Arafat– makes the Peace Prize look like a bad joke. Compared with the former the EU actually looks like a great candidate, so even when the decision does little to improve the standing of the institution, it probably isn’t the worst ever.

…I think the Committee should have gone the extra mile to make its point, and award the Economic Prize to the euro.

About the Author

Jorge Tamames is a senior from Madrid, Spain, studying International Relations with a focus on modern European history and the dynamics of EU integration –or perhaps disintegration. He is also interested in Middle Eastern and Latin American politics, as well as US foreign policy. He is currently researching the legacies of dictatorship in Spain and Portugal.

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