‘The Geopoliticisation of Europe’: Joris Larik delivers the Havel-Cleveringa Lecture
Where European integration has long been understood as a peace project, Joris Larik argued in his Havel-Cleveringa Lecture that recent developments point to an accelerated shift towards a European Union that places its interests, security and geopolitical position more centrally.
In his lecture ‘The Geopoliticisation of Europe’, lecturer and LUC Director of Education Joris Larik portrayed the EU on 16 December in Prague as an increasingly hardened geopolitical actor. The lecture formed part of the annual series of international Cleveringa meetings.
Larik defined the concept of ‘geopoliticisation’ through three interrelated trends: a growing willingness to relativise international rules and multilateral institutions; a stronger emphasis on Europe’s own interests and security, including the military domain; and the renewed importance of geographical factors in foreign and security policy. These characteristics, he argued, are no longer visible solely in the policies of traditional great powers, but are increasingly manifest within those of the European Union itself.
The lecture was organised in collaboration with the Václav Havel Library, the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to the Czech Republic, and Leiden University. Diplomats, scholars, policymakers and students came together for an evening of reflection on Europe’s changing role in the world. The event was chaired by H.E. Ambassador Mina Noor, with Tomáš Sedláček, Director of the Václav Havel Library, serving as discussant.
Role of law
A central theme of the lecture was the role of law in this transformation. Drawing on the work of the late Czech-American law professor Eric Stein, Larik explained how EU law has historically driven integration by codifying political ideas, creating institutions and empowering actors. The same legal mechanisms, he argued, are now propelling and anchoring Europe’s geopolitical turn.
New instruments in the fields of defence, sanctions, industrial policy, and economic security are not merely ad hoc responses to particular crises; they are becoming part of a growing body of EU law that ‘locks in’ a more strategic, security-oriented Union.
Three phases of European integration
Tracing three phases of European integration - Europe as a peace project, the first steps towards geopoliticisation, and its recent ‘turbocharged’ form - Larik showed how various long-standing taboos have been broken. From financing lethal aid through the European Peace Facility to joint procurement of ammunition and large-scale defence funding under the ReArm Europe agenda, the EU is increasingly willing to use legal and financial tools once considered incompatible with its self-image.
Prevention of war
While the prevention of war between EU Member States remains one of Europe’s greatest achievements, Larik observed that the Union is no longer primarily oriented towards peace in the abstract, but towards securing itself in a more hostile environment. Invoking the legacies of both Václav Havel and professor Rudolph Cleveringa, he stressed the urgancy of drawing inspiration from their moral courage for a Europe that must now reconcile its ideals with the demands of security in a changing world.