OU panel discussion to examine travails of European Union

www.athensnews.com 2003-02-24 By Jim Phillips Athens NEWS Senior Writer

Anyone who follows international news is well aware that the European Union -- the "United States of Europe" -- is now undergoing massive growing pains and internal controversy, as it struggles to absorb a raft of new Eastern European countries, codify a constitution, unify its economy, and decide whether to support the United States in its pending war against Iraq.

Athens residents and Ohio University students will get a chance to question academic experts about this jumbled state of affairs Tuesday night when a group of OU professors from various disciplines join in a symposium on "The European Union: For Good or Ill?" in OU's Seigfred Hall.

The event was organized by Robert H. Whealey, an associate emeritus professor of history who has written about European issues including Hitler's involvement in the Spanish Civil War. Whealey said Saturday that he hopes the symposium will spark interest in the EU among students and local citizens.

"I hope there's going to be a crowd," Whealey said. "It's my expectation that the students are going to be raising (the issues of) Iraq and oil."

The symposium will feature Whealey and four other speakers: OU associate professor of geography Timothy Anderson; assistant professor of political science James Mosher; Ohio Eminent Research Professor Alfred Eckes, who has written numerous books on the global economy; and John R. Gump, a Presbyterian pastor with experience among churches in Prague, Vienna and Budapest.

Whealey said his presentation will touch briefly on a number of issues: How World War II changed the European balance of power; the evolution of NATO; the evolution of the EU; how the collapse of the Soviet Union led to a reorganization of NATO; how the conflict in Yugoslavia changed the mission of the EU and NATO; and the question of the Balkans and the Middle East.

Each speaker will have 10 minutes to present, after which the rest of the panel will have two minutes to respond. Following the panel discussion, the symposium will be thrown open to audience questions, Whealey said. The event will be chaired by OU Ombudsman Elizabeth Graham.

Whealey said that although news about the EU isn't given major play in U.S. media, Americans have ample reason to follow developments in the Old World.

"Democracy is in better shape in Europe than America, so the EU has been helpful for democracy," he argued. He added that "the euro is competing with the dollar, and if the United States gets involved in the Middle East on a long-term basis, the value of the dollar is going to go down, and the value of the euro is going to go up."

Oil is also an important factor, Whealey said, noting that while Europe gets much of its oil from the Middle East, the United States is more reliant on Nigeria, Mexico and Venezuela -- which just underwent a crippling national strike in opposition to President Hugo Chavez, that massively cut back on the country's oil production.

Some observers have questioned whether the opposition of France and Germany to U.S. war plans might not be a kind of muscle-flexing among the older countries of the EU, testing whether the Union can effectively act as a countervailing global power to the American empire. Whealey said the issue is complex.

"The United States has the military dominance," he said. "So the problem that Europe faces is, if they do not support the United States in its Middle East war, they are going to have to appropriate the money for their own strike force." Pointing out that European countries spend a much smaller percentage of their gross national products on the military, Whealey predicted that "if there is going to be a parting of the ways, the economy is going to be re-oriented."

He added that while the United States has been a staunch supporter of Israel, public opinion in Europe is in favor of a peaceful resolution of the West Bank conflict, and views Israel as a major threat to regional peace.

"Israel is the elephant in the living room," he said. "(Europeans) see Israel as the biggest problem, not Saddam Hussein."

The symposium is set for 8 p.m., in Seigfred's Mitchell Auditorium. It is sponsored by OU's Contemporary History Institute, Institute for Applied and Professional Ethics, Ohio Program of Intensive English, and the departments of communication, economics, geography, history, interpersonal communication, journalism, linguistics, modern languages, philosophy, political science, social studies education, and sociology.