From americanchronicle.com

By Stuart William Hastings

31.03.2009

On January 1st, 2007 Romania and Bulgaria became the newest member states of the European Union, bringing the state count to a hefty 27. This most recent expansion - the forth - connects Greece to the rest of the EU, while pushing the unions boundaries out to Moldova and the Black Sea. As a result, Turkey has only the EU as a neighbour in Europe, and the Balkan states are - like Switzerland - completely encircled by the union. The states remaining outside of the EU will inevitably join given enough time, and all of Europe will at last stand as one.

The European Union is to date the greatest political endeavor in human history. The union is without precedent; peoples of multiple linguistic, ethnic, and cultural origins voluntarily pooling their sovereignty together into a higher level collective organization. After a thousand years of war between Europe's nation-states, at last cometh the next level of human organization: the continental- state. At the dawn of the twenty-first century, the EU promises to be the next superpower, and a model for the rest of the world.

The 27 member strong EU The union is already ahead of the US in most indicators of power, and will only pull away further as the EU absorbs the remaining states of Europe. The EU already has the largest collective economy in the world at 13.3 trillion dollars; a full Canadian economy (1.1 billion) ahead of the US's 12.2 trillion. The union has a population of about 500, 000 million, 66% larger than the US's 300, 000 million. And with the Euro at record highs against the troubled dollar, the European currency is all but guaranteed to overtake the American dollar as the de facto international currency as the century unfolds. Why?

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is waging an aggressive campaign to convince OPEC to set oil prices in Euros instead of US dollars. Iran is in full support of the switch, and Iraq had already done so - which was reversed after the invasion by the US. If OPEC moves to demand oil purchases in Euros, oil-importing countries will decrease their reserves of US dollars, weakening the currency and diminishing its international stature - an event the US cannot afford given its unprecedented triple (trade/account/budget) deficits.

Impressive as these stats may be, they mean nothing in comparison to ideas. The EU represents a new level of human organization - the next step in the development of the species. Men and women first roamed the earth in small tribes fighting each other over a few meager acres of hunting territory. We moved on from nomads (no pun intended) and into permanent settlements forming the first city- states. Of course, these city-states went to war as often as the tribes did before them, now over control of the resources of the hinterlands. Still, the coordination of resources and energies among a few thousand settled people far outstripped that of earlier less-organized hunter-gatherers. As history unfolded, city-states formed into larger nation-states, mostly along ethnic and linguistic lines, and the rivalries and wars that followed have shaped the world into what we have today: a fractured planet of nation-states jockeying for power over finite global resources.

The most powerful among nation-states - the United States of America - would do well in keeping the system intact. For much the same reason why Brahmins would seek to maintain the caste system, the US benefits from the arbitrary division of Earth's peoples - by nature of being the largest division. It is for this reason that the US is against any political body that would weaken the nation- state system, such as the United Nations or the International Criminal Court.

Indeed, US military involvement results in more division than unification: the division of Germany into West and East following World War II, the division of Korea into North and South following the Korean War, and possibly the break up of Iraq into a Sunni and Shi'a controlled state. The further divided the world becomes, the greater the benefit it is to be the largest division. Great Britain was no better in its days of Empire, splitting the Indian sub-continent into East Pakistan, West Pakistan, India, and Sri Lanka.
Thankfully, the world is not on a course of division, but unification, and the European Union is the first step towards this common goal. The affects of the EU experiment can already be felt across the world.

The formation of the African Union, which hopes to integrate slowly along the lines of the EU, will be the "dark continent's" answer to centuries of division and conflict. Africa does not need foreign aid, cans of Campbell's soup and boxes of Kraft dinner. It needs political unity. If Africa could coordinate itself as a continental unit it would increase its bargaining power immeasurably with industrialized nations that have long taken advantage of its many divisions. I think it is no coincidence that Africa has more nation-states than any other continent, created by larger European states no less.

In my lifetime I dream of seeing a unified African continent. But there is more.

The South American Community of Nations is destined to fulfill Simón Bolívar's dream of uniting the Iberian republics of the Americas into a great federation. The beauty of Canada is that it has proven that two founding nations can coexist within a larger political union. The Spanish and Portuguese populations of Central and South America will one day stand side by side as the English and French populations do today in our country. The SACN plans on working towards a free-trade area, parliament, central bank, and single currency - modeled after the European Union.

I dream of seeing a federation of South America before I die.

For the political integration of the world is not something to be feared, but embraced and fought for. We have fought each other for so long to be divided - why not now fight to be unified?

Civil wars are far less common than international wars. War between Georgia and New York is as unthinkable as war between Germany and France. By integrating nation-states into continental-states, militaries and foreign policies are amalgamated together. The world of the future will comprise of only a handful of continental-states, no less than ten to be sure. War within these states will not be possible as intra-state entities do not have the means to raise armies, just as Ontario cannot build its own military within modern day Canada.

With only a few continental-unions (compared to the roughly 200 nation-states of today) and such great resources at they're disposal, war between continents would be so devastating and undesirable that in all likelihood humanity would never go to war again - and an everlasting peace would be achieved at last.

From there on in, the challenge of future generations will be to coordinate the continental-states into a world-state. A parliament comprised of representatives from each continental-state could discuss matters of planetary importance - such as the looming environmental disaster of global warming. A world divided into petty nation-states does not have the resources or organizational capability to handle global problems. All of a sudden, with a global-sate, there would be no foreign-policies, as there would be no foreigners. The rights and freedoms deserved by all of humanity, not just those in the largest divisions, will be extended and guaranteed for all at long last. The world's technological capacity can be channeled into space exploration rather than needless military advancement. We have built enough war machines already, how about channeling that creative energy into useful projects that will increase humanities understanding of the universe, and our place in it.

But for today, I congratulate Bulgaria and Romania, on joining the European Union. Peace be upon you both.

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