European Union: Peril or Panacea?

Introduction

    The European Union (EU) came into existence because of two world wars and the

Cold War and there were at least three other incidences as well.  The other three incidences

were Auschwitz, Gulag, and the drop of the atomic bomb.  The devastation of the world wars

brought about much distress due to the death tolls and the mass destruction.  The world had

never seen the likes of such a war as WWII because it not only caused psychological issues,

but it also created a sense of fear.  Thus the EU was formed.  It was crucial to the survival of

Europe when the European Union was created because it gave the people a sense of security.

    At the time the EU was distinguished it was a panacea; a remedy for all evils and

difficulties.  However, many question the effect of the EU or if it is causing more harm than

good.  In this paper you’ll learn about WWII and the devastation it caused, why the EU was

formed and the issues it solved, the advantages and disadvantages of the EU, and a prediction

of how some issues can be resolved.

World War II

    When one thinks about WWII they usually think of Hitler first, as they should.  He was

a man who was high on himself and wanted world domination.  His greed for land was proven

by a speech he had written to his generals.  In the speech he mentioned how many women and

children of Polish origin and language must be killed in order to gain the living space for

Germans (Perry, Berg, and Krukones, 2011).  He had it set in his mind that once the Aryan

(the Aryan race, according to Hitler, was the perfect race of Germans or a child with two

German parents) race was established they would need the room to multiply.  Once Poland’s

population had diminished he wanted the same for Russia and the entire Earth.  Nothing was

going to stop this man from reaching his goal.  He wanted it done quickly and without emotion.

Belgium, Holland, and Luxembourg were the next to fall followed by France.  There was no

stopping Hitler, so he thought, at this point.
   
    Hitler’s gain of power over lands did not halt him from committing the most tragic of

events; the Holocaust.  The Nazi’s murdered six million Jews, including on and a half million

children (Perry, Berg, and Krukones, 2011).  In these concentration camps the Jews lived for

nothing except for death.
 
They knew they weren’t coming to the camps on vacation to get away.  Instead, they were

forced out of their homes and away from their security.  Once in the concentration camps they

were fed little, treated poorly, and many were lined up to go into the acid showers.  Many other

prisoners were led to an area where they had to strip themselves of their clothing, stand in a line

against a pit of people already dead, and wait to be shot.  It did not matter to Hitler that

innocent people were being murdered because he did not consider the Jewish people to be

innocent.  He thought them to be parasites.  In his mind, they stole German spouses, took jobs

away from the German people, and bought food that was meant for the Germans.  He was

building his army of Nazi soldiers by putting his way of thinking into the schools to where Jewish

children couldn’t even go to school for fear of some sort of retaliation.

Gulag

    After Hitler’s Auschwitz (concentration camps), Gulag followed.  The Soviet prison

camps were no better than the concentration camps.  Hundreds upon thousands of prisons

were forced to strip naked and thrown in a cell that was sometimes no bigger than a closet.

 They were crammed inside like sardines and fed only bread and a soup-like substance.  There

were no sanitary provisions for the prisoners, they would get beat, and many were shot.  By the

time the prison camp was closed down only a few prisoners were left because many were either

shot or died of malnutrition.

Atomic Bomb
 
    Another tragic event of WWII was that of the atomic bomb.  America didn’t even want

to join WWII until that fateful day at Pearl Harbor.  Japanese pilots and kamikazes pretty much

destroyed the Hawaiian base.  President Truman was told about the atomic bombs and when

the Japanese did not surrender Hiroshima and Nagasaki were bombed.  They were the first

atomic bombs ever to be set off and it frightened the Europeans and many other countries.  It

urned the United States into a superpower.
 
    The devastation of WWII was enormous.  Allied troops destroyed what they thought to

be hostile areas.  By the wars end in 1945, there were tens of millions of dead (Perry, Berg,

and Krukones, 2011).  Germany was incapacitated and any other hostiles were silenced.

    After WWII the Cold war between the United States and the U.S.S. R. came to being.

There was a thought that the Soviets would attempt to expand their territories, so the “Iron

Curtain” was placed.  It became a fail safe in a way to make Western Europe feel better.

However, there was still the threat of totalitarian control.

The European Union

    Soon to follow was the formation of NATO in 1949.  NATO was the North Atlantic

Treaty Organization designed to guarantee peace and security throughout the land.  Many

countries were sick of war and would do anything to stop the succession of another and that’s

why NATO was formed.  In 1951 France, West Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium,

Luxembourg, and Italy formed the ECSC or the European Coal and Steel Community (Perry,

Berg, and Krukones, 2011).  It was formed in order to secure economic cooperation.  The

EEC or the European Economic Community followed soon after.  The EEC created a positive

market of goods, services, people, and capital in which was available to all economic sectors

(Gerven, 2005).  Eventually, the EU or the European Union came into existence after other

countries began to join the EC or the European Community.

    Basically, the forces that compelled Europe’s integration were the horrors of Auschwitz

where the concentration camps were, the Gulag where the Soviet prison camps were, and the
 
atomic bomb (Pond, 2002).  Not only that, but reconstruction had to begin somewhere and it was best suited

with the EU.  The wars had caused so much chaos within the world the EU was a way out of abnormality and a

way in for normality.

    Since the European Union came out from the rubble of the wars it’s hard to say if its

existence will continue.  The EU is neither a union of sovereign states nor a federation,

confederation, or federal state (Benjamin, 2010).  The states within the EU have to abide by

European laws and policies and everything is one entity.  Yet there is a serious problem with

sovereignty and jurisdiction within the EU.  The risk of the European Union’s authority is a giant

complex as well.  For example, who would be willing to give up his national family, his language,

and the security of his country for one giant (Benjamin, 2010).  There are also issues within the

 EU that cause other distresses .  One such issue is government policies created for the states,

but do not apply them to their own country.  This makes the people want to reject the EU, but

most people would say that they love the EU.
 
    A love/hate relationship is not a healthy one in any situation.  The reason why the EU

was created in the first place was to give the countries within a sense of security and stability; a

place away from conflict and war.  However, the EU has become a political mess where ideas

clash and policies are under speculation.  The EU was a good idea when it first started, but now

it has gotten too large to account for its own people.

Positives of the European Union

    Not everything about the European Union is negative.  Committee members live normal

lives and not of higher standards, or standard’s in which they cannot sustain.  Though, the

committee’s standard of public life is noticeably positive because of a code of conduct.  The

code of conduct is determined by the behavior of the commissioners themselves, their behavior

 as civil servants, and their standards of public life (Gervan, 2005).  However, the EC states
 
that they can be completely independent in their duties, so the code of conduct has not happened.  It’s like

they are a separate bureaucratic entity.  Whichever way one looks at it, this could be good or bad.

    When thinking of the people the European Union gave peace to its states in a post-cold

war arena.  Nobody knew what the Soviets had planned.  After all, they did set treat when

Hitler was still alive, but they did not know that he planned destroy the U.S.S.R. as well.  The

EU was there to make sure war did not happen instead of worrying about who would win the

war once it started.  The EU also created a unified currency that would eventually get its states

out of debt.  At first, the currency did fall below standards.  Now, however, European currency

exceeds the U.S. Dollar.  The European Union created jobs for the unemployed and there was

many people unemployed.  With the war’s destruction and the depression thousands of people

were in need of some sort of employment.  The people no longer had to worry about resources

or food products because the EU states were unified.  Basically, the EU gave the people an

identity of sorts; a sense of belonging.

Negatives of the European Union

    Within the European Union there are cross-national differences that hold back the

countries or states.  It seems as if the EU has neglected responsibility of nationality because of

the many issues behind it can cause.  It’s difficult to get someone to stop a habit they have had

for years then it is for someone who just started.  This brings the question:  Is the European

Union getting too large to accommodate all of its people?  The EU has gotten so large that there

is a clash of nationalities.  The West, for example, has had liberated women for years, but the

Middle East has women that cannot even show their faces after they are married.  Who is right

and who is wrong?  The answer to that question is simple.  No one is right and no one is wrong.
 
    Since the West has thought themselves to be superior they believe everyone should be

free to choose, walk, talk, or play as they wish.  However, freedom of choice is not given to
 
them because the West wants their choice to be there ideals of life.  There are old age traditions that are

being compromised and the loss of nationality is still growing.  Unfortunately, the West approaches things with

their science, their conception of state, their bureaucracy, and their nationalist ideologies (Perry, Berg, and

Krukones, 2011).  That is the reason why culture and national identities are becoming lost.  Social norms are

not necessarily social norms somewhere else (Duncan and Pfau-Effinger, 2000).  There is not just one universal

way of living, so why does culture have to be destroyed.  This is a major downfall of the European Union and it

needs to become an issue for the council and/or parliament because many people thrive on their nationality.

It’s the reason why they are who they are.  Life should not be different just because somebody says it

should.

    The EU needs to stop neglecting society and focus on them.  If they continue on the

same path there might not even be a European Union in the future.  People do not jump off a

bridge just because their friend tells them to.  Instead, they fight for their cause; for their life.  It

is no different with culture or nationality.

    Another issue within the European Union is foreign policy.  They focus on outcomes

rather than process (Tonra and Christiansen, 2004).  In order to understand foreign policy one

has to know the process of how it came to be in the first place.  Instead, the EU is putting

process aside and ignoring it.  Do not get me wrong because the European Union does

understand its global role when it comes to foreign policy.  They just need to have a different

approach.  It is time for them to completely understand the policies and procedures of the

European Union or else there will be a second reason for their downfall.  The United States

would not have been able to run on its constitutional law if Congress did not follow the correct

procedures.  Therefore, it should not be any different for the EU.  The foreign policy should be

conducted by one single entity as well.  Within the European Union each state has a say in

foreign relations.  This may end up causing a conflict of interests.  Even worse, if one state

wanted more goods they could choose it.  That would deny a different state from getting all its goods.  It is an

assembly line process that can be dangerous if not corrected.

Improving the European Union

    The European Union needs to, first off, take care of its people because the nationality

issue is a predominant one.  Many people are loosing interest with the EU because they’re

nationality is being compromised.  The fact that countries who enter the EU need to become

democracies is not an issue compared to this one, and segregation is not a way of solving the

problem.  There are already too many nationalities mixed together in order for that to happen. 

Basically, the European Union needs to stop neglecting this issue and start focusing on the

people by educating classrooms and older adults on the different cultures.  Students do learn

about different aspects of cultures, but they don’t really get down to the core of what it means to

be a part of that culture.  It is the life-source of their existence.  Their ancestors were part of

their way of life.  The EU has to understand the implications of westernizing everyone is making

the people lose a part of themselves.

    As for foreign policy everything has worked thus far, but the European Union is getting

bigger.  Just because a certain country is in the EU doesn’t mean they should have a right to a

policy of their own.  Honestly, they should study the structure of the United States Congress

because it seems that is what they tried to base the European Union off of; the Articles of

Confederation.  With the Articles of Confederation each state had it’s own way of conducting

business.  Once a month the Congress was supposed to meet and conduct business.  At least

the EU did better than the first Congress of the United States because they meet every day. 

Nevertheless, the United States had to change policies and procedures over time because of

how big the country was getting over time.  That’s why the Constitution was written.  It was

because the foreign policy was working against the colonies instead of for them.  It is time that

the EU readjust their constitution in order to better equip themselves for the changing times.

Conclusion

    World War II was a horrific time in the history of the world.  Many ugly things

happened when it came to Hitler and his Third Reich.  His methods of ruling Germany were

treacherous and the blood of millions of Jews stained his hands.  The Soviets were not any

better with their prison camps, and United States cannot really say they were all that good either

because they were the first to use the atom bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  These episodes

were the reasoning behind the European Union’s birth, and even though there are discrepancy it

is fact that the EU helped a troubled nation.  It brought the people together in a time of distress,

which was the reason why Europe thrives today.

References

     Perry, M., Berg, M., & Krukones, J., 2011.  Sources of European History Since

1900.  Boston, MA.  Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.

    Benjamin, D., Editor, 2010.  Europe 2030.  Washington, D.C. The Brookings

Institution.
     Gervan, W., 2005.  The European Union, A Polity of States and People.  Stanford,

CA.  Stanford University Press.

     Duncan, S., & Pfau-Effinger, Editors, 2000.  Gender, Economy and Culture in the

European Union.  New York, NY.  Routledge.

     Pond, E., 2002.  The Rebirth of Europe, Second Edition.  Washington, D.C.  The

Brookings Institution.

     Tonra, B., & Christiansen, T., Editors, 2004.  Rethinking European Union Foreign

Policy.  Manchester, UK.  Manchester University Press.