Foreign Policy

Myths endure because they create an outstanding surface upon which a range of ideas can be projected. The idea of a European army is no different. It has long been a repository for a wide array of concepts and goals for a flamboyant vision. Yet anyone who tries to grasp this pretty soap bubble ends up disappointed: It slips away or bursts.

“War,” said the ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus, is the “father of all things.” In view of the bloody – indeed barbaric – events in the Middle East (and in Iraq and Syria in particular), one might be tempted to agree, even though such ideas no longer seem to have a place in the postmodern worldview of today’s Europe.

Today, we witness an anachronistic pattern of foreign policy: incoherent, homocentric, far removed from the reality of people, and dominated by economic and political interests (the neoliberal system).