Realist Visions of European Union: E.H. Carr and Integration

Abstract

The past 15 years have seen an explosion of interest in the scholarship of E.H. Carr. As a founding figure of the realist approach to International Relations, as a philosopher of history and as a historian of the Soviet Union, Carr made important contributions. His work on the post-war political organisation of Europe has been somewhat neglected. While not going so far as to argue for the introduction of ‘another E.H. Carr’ – Carr the European integration theorist – this article argues that Carr’s specific brand of realism has much to say not only about the establishment, but also about the subsequent development, of the European Economic Community. Carr’s realism was, we argue, capable of understanding change in international society. This understanding was grounded in an appreciation of the role of power and morality in international politics and stands in sharp contrast to the emphasis on the structural factors that are prized by neorealists. While Carr’s vision of post-war Europe has not materialised in its entirety, it captures some of the crucial fault lines that animate the European project. Building a bridge between European integration studies and Carr’s realism will provide a fruitful avenue through which classical realism can once again begin to engage with developments in international politics.

Debating global justice with Carr: The crisis of laissez faire and the legitimacy problem in the twenty-first century

“…Furthermore, Carr endorsed Mitrany’s functionalism to check the latter’s ‘potentially dangerous centralising tendencies’ (Scheuerman, 2010: 261). 6 Despite this endorsement however Carr also, as Kenealy and Kostagiannis (2013) argue, rejected Mitrany’s depoliticised functionalism that ‘saw the possibility of separating the political, economic and social spheres’ (2013: 238–239 note 84). Carr thus tied functionalism to ‘a collectivist vision in which functional organisations operated alongside traditional socialist-style state economic planning in building the foundations of post-national order’ (Scheuerman, 2010: 264).…”

“…The centrality of the social function of nationalism is one of the most enduring themes in Carr’s body of work. Writing in 2013, for example, Kenealy and Kostagiannis (2013) argued that ‘The public discourse in different states during the current eurozone crisis … demonstrates how the embedded characteristics of the socialised nations are still alive and well in the public consciousness’ (2013: 244). With the benefit of hindsight one may add that social nationalism is ever more present today in the public consciousness, reasserting itself where the legitimacy of supranational units and governments in existing federal states are put to question.…”

“…Thus, although Carr’s contextual judgements on appeasement and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republic (USSR) are irrelevant today, his theoretical analysis of historical change and its impact on the crisis of laissez faire in the age of the socialised nation remains enduring. As Kenealy and Kostagiannis (2013) conclude, ‘decades on from the publication of Nationalism and After , the challenges posed by the third phase of nationalism remain unanswered’ (2013: 244). A key challenge here is to provide a framework of rights and obligations that delivers not only political rights, but also economic and social rights to the lesser privileged in times of peace.…”

“…Scholars later examined the relevance of Carr’s analysis to the post-Cold War liberal order (Cox, 2010; Johnston, 2007; Kostagiannis, 2018), and the debate on sovereignty (Karp, 2008). Carr’s take on global reform (Barrinha, 2016; Scheuerman, 2011), and relevance to European integration (Kenealy and Kostagiannis, 2013), were also examined in recent years. This section extends the application of Carr’s analysis to the recent resurgence of nationalism in the twenty-first century.…”

Pragmatism, Realism and the ethics of crisis and transformation in international relations

“…For good treatments of this phase of Carr's career see the following:(Suganami 1989;Wilson 1996;Linklater 1997;Rich 2000;Molloy 2006;Kenealy and Kostagiannis 2013).…”