Conclusion

Abstract

By way of concluding this work, let me first address the question of why one should bother studying practices of European integration at a time when they seem to inspire less enthusiasm than perhaps at any previous time in postwar European history. The introduction answered that question in rather general terms by arguing that deconstructive textual analysis is ultimately concerned with ethics. Thus, I have in the preceding chapters pointed to some potential dangers inherent in foundationalist desires for a European bounded identity — an EU which in a similar fashion to the modern state is enacted by practices of identification, bordering, and ordering. In this concluding chapter, I start by making two general points in relation to the timeliness of the ideas put forward in this book; the first point has to do with the increasing diversity on the European continent, and the second point concerns the rapid militarization of the EU. The second section of the chapter concludes the book by summarizing its main argument.