Nye and the European Example

Nye says that “the original neo-functionalist formulation paid insufficient attention to the role of external factors in integration processes” (811), and that he “include[s] regional actor perceptions of the external situation as one of the integrative conditions that we will examine below and consider only involvement of external actors in the integration scheme as a process mechanism” (118). In short, Nye says that sometimes external factors can positively impact integration, and sometimes it can negatively impact integration. When examining the role of external factors in the establishment and continued growth of the European Union, there is no greater mechanism in the establishment of Europe’s regional integration than a set of unique driving forces that Nye fails to mention.
Specifically, the European Union’s gradual development would never have occurred the way it did outside of the unique political and economic situation it was in after World War II. Western Europe neighbored the satellites of communist Russia and almost completely dependent on the United States for military security. As Europe integrated, each individual state was acknowledging that this one the only way they could assert economic power in the world, considering the economic power of the United States at the time and Europe dependency on the US military. It is impossible to understand the European Union without acknowledging these circumstances.
Nye does discuss the “integrative potential of a region” (812). One could assert that the background described above set the tone for a high level of “integrative potential” in Europe at the time. This is further complimented by Nye’s acknowledgement of the importance of “complimentarity of elites, pluralism, and the symmetry (“size”) of the units” (812). When all of these factors are combined, it can help to explain the success of the EU. The problem is that the background is such a specific circumstance that it hard to imagine another situation in which a similar outcome would occur, something that Nye seems to acknowledge himself, but he still asserts the importance of the European model when studying other settings. After reading all the variables that Nye discusses, I am not convinced.