Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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25 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Disappointing, 27 May 2005
"...we will see the emergence of a 'New European Century'," claims the final paragraph of the book. "Not because Europe will run the world as an empire, but because the European way of doing things will have become the world's." This ending sums up Mark Leonard's attitude pretty well, if the unambiguous title didn't do that already. Unfortunately, the book is not much more than pro-EU propaganda, and this is being said by someone who is generally more in favour of the European Union than against.The last paragraph is what annoys me the most. The book may not support old-fashioned imperialism, but Leonard's attitude is little more than a modern rehash of it, in which the economically prosperous countries of Western Europe once again have little to learn from the rest of the world, but must, through example and coercion, teach its ideology to everyone else. At one point near the end, Leonard mentions the rise of China, now often (rightly or wrongly) touted as the world's next superpower, and with the characteristic and laughable smugness that runs through the entire book suggests that a more powerful China, enlightened by European philosophies, could be used as a tool for spreading the EU's methods and ideals further. Quite a few of the ideas in the book are not wrong. Europe's ideals regarding foreign policy, shaped by the devastation of wars on its own soil, are generally wiser than the attitudes of George W Bush and the politicians in the United States who have little regard for the lives of people in other countries that are not of much economic benefit to them. There is indeed a lot that the rest of the world can learn from Europe's present and past when building a better international future. However, there are serious problems with Europe's current system that make it untenable in the long run, and this is barely acknowledged by Leonard at all. What of the fact that Britain outsources a lot of its work to India, where educated workers are paid less and can sometimes have better English language skills than the people at home? Or the fact that Europe and the rest of the world increasingly rely on China to provide cheap labour so that clothes, televisions, and any number of other things remain affordable? How is the world going to cope if these countries are fully Westernised and the population demands to have the EU's liberal lifestyle, where it is easy for many people to take more from society than they give back? What will the EU do to replace its reliance on cheap workers found elsewhere in the world? I don't claim to have the answers, but Leonard doesn't even consider the questions worth asking. In fact, almost all of the book is devoted to rebuffing criticisms of the EU, pointing out why those criticisms are flawed and how great the European Union really is. Leonard may not mean everything he says; there is a sense that sometimes he is merely trying to provoke his opponents, but the sad thing is that this book could have been so much more: a balanced and thoughtful look at the problems facing the EU, its great achievements, and how it and the rest of the world can learn from each other. Instead, the whole book is shamelessly one-sided and simplistic, and embarrassing to read in places. There are too many problems with this book to list them all, and the points in favour of it are generally few and far between. It's a good read for Europeans feeling insecure about their continent's future, who want a rose-tinted view of the next century where values familiar to them will still be prominent in the world. Or buy it for the amusing picture of Leonard on the inside cover. Otherwise, the book is well worth a miss.
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13 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Style over substance?, 11 April 2006
By A Customer
I was suspicious of this book. Usually a good read doesn't need a trendy cover and a catchy title to sell itself and it was no surprise to read that Mark Leonard is a public diplomacy expert. But if only the inside was as good as the outside! It's not a bad book by any means, just one that feels like it was written in a hurry and with only one fundmanetal point to make. Yes, you guessed it, Europe will run the 21st century.
Firstly, this came as a surprise to me. Leonard overlooks the fact, but in a way the EU has an inferiority complex vis-a-vis the US and spends a lot of its time comparing itself to it and trying to be more like it. Witness the Lisbon Agenda or the Constitutional Convention or the ESDP. What's more, while Leonard is right to assert that the EU can successfully promote itself as an institutional model, this would be far less likely were it to attempt to do so economically or politically speaking. Leonard seems to overlook our stalling economies, high unemployment, unsustainable pension and healthcare systems, as well as the fact that "soft power Europe" is proving just as inept at dealing with current international "problems" such as Iran's nuclear ambitions or the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as is "hard power" USA. Quote Foucault and Valery all you want, but I reckon the EU is about as likely to "run the 21st century" as Britney Spears is to run for President.
So, I disagree with the thesis. The people whose work Leonard is building on, such as Robert Cooper and Joseph Nye, make less bold claims of the EU and are all the better for it. I'm sure they also sell far less books. And that's the problem here for me. Leonard clearly knows what he's talking about, but in essence everything he says someone else has said before. And said it better. Thus this is a classic example of European politics "lite" or journalism touting as something more academic. That's not to be nasty - there's something very refreshing and satisfying to read a Brit make the case for Europe and explain away the nonsense and myths that surrounds so much of what the EU does. But this really is a book for those who want simplicity at the expense of rigour and nuance. An author with greater confidence (or more time) would have done a better job of picking his opposition apart. After all, if the EU's Kantian-peace is really going to rule the world, then why is China busy building up an army of unprecedented size and scale (and Kantian Europeans are queuing up to sell them everything they need, if only someone would lift that darn arms embargo!) and why does democratic India need nuclear weapons and frequently spar with its neighbour? If the EU is so attractive, why are voters in Ukraine rejecting the pro-European politics of Yushenko? It's because national politics matter most, and because speaking softly is no good unless you're carrying a big stick. Yes the EU (and "soft power") matters. But not nearly as much as the EU - or Mark Leonard - think it does.
I'm sure this book will sell by the truckload. And if you have more than a passing curiosity in the EU and how it affects citizens of both Europe and the wider world you could do worse than to pick it up. That said, the EU isn't all roses and Leonard is wrong to be so optimistic about the direction the EU is going. Last time I looked French and Dutch voters were rejecting the EU's constitution, Blair was backing out of a referendum on joining the single currency, etc... Thus the smug and confident assertion that the EU is the model that will take over the world rather neglects the ever increasing unpopularity of that model and the more fundamental normative question of what should be done about it.
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22 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Quick read, very informative!, 24 Feb 2005
This book was published early this year and its striking cover caught my eye.
It is however, very much written with the opinion in mind that the title suggests.
I read the 1st ten pages of the introduction and felt so ill that I went straight to the back of the book to find the author's e-mail address so that I could write to him telling him what a biased, seemingly blind and one sided book he had written.
However, after reading the final page of the intro, things were starting to look up, as he briefly commented on some of the reasons why "they may be of the opinion that Europe will not run the 21st century because..."The book was very up to date and the chapters which followed were well written, highly informative and threw up some very interesting concepts and comparisons between the EU and the USA, such as America's pursuit of bringing democracy to the world through a rapid and intensive use of military force and Europe's lack of military capability/willingness to use force which has led to it seeking other cheaper, more effective and longer lasting alternatives such as using the carrot of EU membership to successfully change countries like Turkey over time.
The author makes effective use of several parables and Greek legends to explain some of the more interesting/challenging concepts. Having been head of the European foreign policy unit, the writer presents a clear insight into current and future European thinking. By the last page, even I had to accept that his presumptuous title could be right.
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