Table Of ContentThe Geopolitics of
Europe’s Identity
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The Geopolitics of
Europe’s Identity
Centers,Boundaries,and Margins
Edited by Noel Parker
the geopolitics ofeurope’s identity
Copyright ©Noel Parker,ed.,2008.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2008 ISBN 978-1-4039-8205-6
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First published in 2008 by
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Library ofCongress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Parker,Noel
The geopolitics ofEurope’s identity :centers,boundaries and
margins / editor Noel Parker.
p.cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 1-4039-8205-8 (alk.paper)
1.Geopolitics—Europe—Case studies.2.European Union.—
Boundaries—Case studies.3.Marginality,Social—Europe—Case
studies.4.European Union countries—Relations—Case studies.I.
Parker,Noel,1945-
JC319.G489 2008
327.4001—dc22 2007024221
A catalogue record ofthe book is available from the British Library.
Design by Scribe Inc.
First edition:January 2008
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Preface vii
Noel Parker
Part I The Nature ofMarginal Formations
1 A Theoretical Introduction:Space,Centers,and Margins 3
Noel Parker
2 De-Limitation:The Denigration ofBoundaries in
the Political Thought ofLate Modernity 25
Sergei Prozorov
3 Power and Marginality in the International System:
A Historical Perspective 45
Pertti Joenniemi and Noel Parker
Part II Margins around Europe
4 Exploiting Marginality:The Case ofRussia 67
Maxine David
5 An Encounter ofTwo Marginalities:EU-Russia
Transborder Relations in Russian Discourse 85
Andrey S.Makarychev
6 Denmark’s and Britain’s Marginality Strategies Compared 103
Noel Parker
7 Europe and a Globalizing United States:
Political Ideals Projected and Counter-projected 121
Noel Parker
8 Gibraltar,Jerusalem,Kaliningrad:
Peripherality,Marginality,Hybridity 141
Christopher S.Browning and Pertti Joenniemi
9 Notions of“Europe”:Where Does
Europe’s Southern Margin Lie? 159
Michelle Pace
10 The Ritual ofListening to Foreigners:
Appropriating Geopolitics in Central Europe 177
Merje Kuus
vi CONTENTS
11 Boundary-making in Europe’s Southeastern Margin:
Balkan/Europe Discourse in Croatia and Slovenia 195
Nicole Lindstrom
12 Variable Geometries:Institutions,Power,and Ideas in
Turkey’s European Integration Process 207
Fabrizio Tassinari
13 Conclusion 225
Noel Parker
List ofContributors 235
Index 237
Preface
Noel Parker
The idea for this book came first from a seminar in Copenhagen in
November 2004,within the EU-Commission-funded EuroBordConf pro-
gram,where the primary aim was to examine how the EU was handling
various conflictual borders within and around its territory.A number of
participants,who are now also contributors to this volume,were pursuing
the idea that there were “margins”around Europe that interact amongst
themselves,and with the identity ofEurope as an international actor,a sys-
tem of governance,and a cultural whole.We sensed,in other words,that
Europe’s geopolitical identity was in play in a host ofinteractions with its
margins.That is the basis upon which we have prepared this book.
Much ofthe discussion at that meeting turned on a rather skimpy essay
ofmine published in 2000.There was,that is to say,a great deal still left to
do:there was a need to refine the theoretical basis for our shared suspicion,
and to explore cases more thoroughly from the point ofview oftheir “mar-
ginality.”This book offers a thorough,and to some extent,tested account
of margins, marginality, and Europe’s geopolitical identity—setting out
theoretical underpinnings for our interest in margins as both necessary
and dynamic factors in sociopolitical identities;developing specifications
of the nature of margins and their interactions with centers,in this case
Europe;and examining shifting margins on all sides ofEurope.We are con-
fident that it substantiates our belief that there is much to learn about
Europe by understanding its margins and their relationships. The book
thus addresses a number ofquestions that prompted our interest in mar-
gins:What interactions occur between Europe and its margins,and with
what kinds of impact?; What do marginal actors do in their capacity as
marginal?; What conditions affect the impacts and the degree that mar-
ginal actors achieve their purposes?;How do the identities ofEurope and
its margins interact and evolve,and with what consequent shifts ofgeopo-
litical identity?
The interested reader who has taken in the contents list will immedi-
ately stumble on something that may seem surprising.We permit ourselves
to analyze as “margins”of Europe entities,such as Russia and the United
States, which one ordinarily has difficulty thinking of as mere margins.
viii PREFACE
While it would be fair to respond that both of these have at one time or
another been margins in the familiar sense ofperipheries dependent upon
a European center,that response hides the scope ofour agenda.For we use
the term “margin”in a positivesense,avoiding any presuppositions about
the marginal entity’s standing,autonomy or impacts,and allowing for the
possibility of itsimpacting upon the center.The use of the term,which is
further explored in the introduction,makes it perfectly sensible to analyze
those imposing entities Russian and the United States as “margins”in rela-
tion to Europe. There is an established trend in post-colonial studies to
challenge Europe’s historic centrality (Chakrabarty 2000). In order to
understand Europe’s evolving place and identity, we return it to center
stage,but do so with an unusual perspective,which removes the primacy of
the “center,”leaving the center—Europe—fully exposed to impacts from its
many margins.
We gratefully acknowledge the help of the University of Copenhagen’s
research priority area “Europe in Transition”in funding an author confer-
ence in December 2006,without which the project could not have been com-
pleted.“The Ritual ofListening to Foreigners:Appropriating Geopolitics in
Central Europe”is based on chapter 6 of Merje Kuus’s book Geopolitics
Reframed: Security and Identity in Europe’s Eastern Enlargement,2007,New
York:Palgrave Macmillan.Parts ofthat chapter are reproduced by permis-
sion ofPalgrave Macmillan.
Part I
The Nature of
Marginal Formations
