We currently appear to be experiencing a deliberate deconstruction of the old order, be this financial, economic and social or technical, political and strategic. This deconstruction process is driven by a general globalisation of trade and by a move to assign greater function to processes that liberate energies and break down barriers. It presumes a future where the societies of the world agree to a general westernisation of their structures.⁽¹⁾

The defence denationalisation task in Europe was assigned to NATO and this was completed before the end of the Cold War. As for nationalist competition, this was suppressed by the European Commission, which initiated a community-based approach to strategic affairs and the deregulation of markets while promoting free competition as a means of achieving prosperity and peace. European companies were thus homogenised through the combined effects of the single market, Erasmus, Schengen and all the convergence mechanisms brought in to meet external criteria. This generalised trend, which deliberately relegated nation states to a secondary role, did not however establish effective collective structures, whether within the European Defence Initiative, the Euro zone or the Social Europe project. However, it unduly favoured ideologies, sponsors, lobbies, corporate bodies and other power brokers, for the most part external, pursuing their own agendas without the benefit of the democratic legitimacy that the common interest bestows. Advisers, the media and markets have become used to laying down the law and setting their own priorities for the public undertakings of European nations.

The Westphalian order has become blurred⁽²⁾ and the state, plagued by contradictions, has been undermined.⁽³⁾