THE STATE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION Towards a new legislative term

13 The new geopolitics Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, the world has been try- ing to establish a new international order to replace the Cold War, a framework defined by three basic features: the balance of nuclear terror, the existence of two con- flicting and barely interconnected economic systems and an institutional distribution of power embodied by the United Nations. In the Cold War order, two superpowers—the Unit- ed States and the Soviet Union—operated as oppos- ing hegemonic forces. Between them, they had created emergency brakes to avert a nuclear disaster. Even so, the world was wilfully pushed to the brink of catastro- phe at least once—that we know of. Against that back- drop, the planet underwent such profound changes as decolonisation and was dogged by such persistent prob- lems as the absence of democracy and the systematic violation of human rights in countless countries, under- development and regional conflicts. Despite the hegemony of Washington and Moscow in that time, certain groups of countries, like the non- aligned states, tried to tread their own, somewhat dif- ferent, path. The European Union (EU)—whose process of con- struction spanned the various stages of the Cold War, from the darkest to the more restrained—arrived at 1989 with 12 member states and immersed in a clear acceleration of its process of political deepening. This would culminate shortly afterwards in the Maastricht Treaty, with which it acquired its definitive name, spawned what would ultimately be the euro and de- fined its common foreign and security policy for the first time. In other words, in the space that has come to be called the West, a united Europe took a decisive step towards forging its own identity. Between 1989 and the mid-2010s, international political and economic cooperation prevailed. Glo- balisation took hold and dialogue among the chief countries or groups of countries meant that major worldwide challenges could be addressed, or at least debated, jointly. There was a considerable spread of democracy. Former foes—the United States and the Russian Federation—struck up an ongoing dialogue, not with- out its ups and downs. The People’s Republic of China kept growing politically and economically. The EU con- tinued to make great strides, resulting in the Lisbon Treaty, enlargement and the aspiration to become a major world power. The BRICS group formed, and they demanded a place at the table. Nevertheless, wars—like the one in Iraq started by President George W. Bush in 2003, acting outside in­ ternational law—remain a reality, even on European soil (the former Yugoslavia); regional historical conflicts persist, or new ones arise; new threats appear, such as international terrorism; the liberalisation of internation- al trade stall, poverty and underdevelopment refuse to go away, and the United Nations -an essential organiza- tion- still needs a renovation. European identity and the new geopolitics Carlos Carnero