The Uncertain State(s) of Europe?

Abstract

Recent representations of the European project have, more often than not, characterized it as `uncertain',`weak',and even `indeterminate'. In this article, I look to the political — and geopolitical — ramifications of such understandings, in particular as regards Europe's role in the world. I remark, especially, on the geographical imaginations which underpin such critiques: highly normative assumptions regarding political territoriality and `power' in the international arena. I argue that such geographical imaginations fundamentally miss the radical transformations taking shape at and well beyond Europe's borders, thus failing to recognize the emergence of the EU as a very new sort of international actor.