Luuk van Middelaar has been invited by the Collège de France assembly, at the suggestion of Prs Samantha Besson, Edith Heard, Vinciane Pirenne-Delforge and Thomas Römer.
This series of four lectures inaugurates the Europe cycle. It is devoted to the theme Geopolitical Europe : deeds and words ".
In this Europe cycle, we look at the European Union's aspirations, as a whole, to show itself as a respected player on the world stage, and to have a greater influence on the course of events. This desire for a more "geopolitical", "strategic" and even "sovereign" Europe, expressed over the past few years by many leaders (including the French President and the President of the Commission), is not easily translated into action. To remedy this situation, Brussels doctrine tends to look to institutional reform or policy adaptation. We suggest, on the contrary, that what is needed first and foremost is a change inethos, mentality and worldview. To regain its role as a player, Europe needs to move away from the universalist, timeless thinking in which it took refuge after 1945, in terms of both values and economics. It must come to terms with the finiteness of space and time, relearn the language of power and, in short, embark on a truly liberating metamorphosis - painful though this may be.
Experience teaches us, however, that only necessity can bring Europeans out of their privileged position in the wings of history, shock after shock, step by step. Rather than adding to the chorus of exhortations that are regularly heard, we will examine how Europeans have been reacting since 2015 to disruptive events and reorganizing their Union accordingly.
Four main themes illustrate this reluctant awakening: discovery of territorial finiteness, in the recognition of a common external border, notably on the occasion of the Ukrainian (2014-2015) and migratory (2015-2016) crises, and during Turkish intimidation in the eastern Mediterranean (2020) ; discovery of economic finitude, keenly felt in the shock of medical scarcity during the covid -19 pandemic, and more broadly in a new dependence on Xi Jinping's China; discovery of temporal finitude and solitude, finally, played out in the United States' slow abandonment of its role as protector of the European continent. These successive discoveries, gropings and losses of innocence can only lead to a Europe that is an actor and master of its own destiny if they are accompanied by a narrative. Isn't this the oldest way of inscribing ourselves in time, the best way of transforming the pain of finitude into strength? Without narrative sovereignty, there can be no strategic autonomy.
These four geopolitical exercises will be linked by a number of cross-cutting themes: the new importance of advertising and the public sphere; shifts in power between European states, particularly between France, Germany and the UK; institutional reforms and the relationship between law and politics within EU bodies.
