Editorial: Decolonizing Rather than Decentring ‘Europe’

Abstract

Josep Borrell’s infamous 13 October 2022 speech, where he described the European Union (EU) in terms of a ‘garden’ versus the ‘jungle’ outside, has received an unprecedented amount of scrutiny. Yet the metaphor used by the HighRepresentative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and European Commission Vice-President in charge of ‘a stronger Europe in the world’was not new, nor was its underlying logic a surprise. Various analysts have pointed out the colonial tropes in European policymakers’ discourses over the past decades. In an influential essay that came out in 2000, Sir Robert Cooper, who would later also become an advisor to the Council of the EU, the European External Action Service, and the European Commission, pitched the ‘postmodern’ EU where the rule of law is reigning versus ‘premodern’ states where the ‘law of the jungle’ prevails. This illustrates how mainstream EU political discourse has been, and remains, highly colonial in the way in which relations between the EU and its presumed ‘others’ in world politics are conceived. More notable is the intensity of the debate and condemnation that Borrell’s speech has generated within policy and scholarly circles. This reflects a growing realization that the EU should be more modest about its so-called civilizational achievements and acknowledge the long and dark shadow of its colonial past. Against the background of clear challenges to (western) European dominance in the world system, critical observers are ardently questioning Europe’s alleged moral and sociopolitical superiority. Issues of racism within Europe have been increasingly discussed in the wake of ‘Black Lives Matter’ protests. Recent research has revealed