The bestowal of the 2012 Nobel Peace Prize on the European Union caused considerable protests and ridicule, not least in Norway. However, in my opinion the Nobel committee's interpretation of Alfred Nobel's will was well-founded. "The United States of Europe" was a widely acclaimed long-term goal of the peace movement that inspired Alfred Nobel. For instance, the German peace activist…
The euro crisis: What is really at stake?
Everybody understands that the euro crisis is about much more than the survival of the euro. But I am doubtful about how many understand what German chancellor Angela Merkel meant when she said that the issue is "the future of Europe". If the euro breaks down, the European Union would lose much of its momentum.…
Productivity and the sociology of religion
Religious variation may be an important root cause of the euro crisis and indeed of global inequality too. I have earlier argued that religion, or rather religious culture, has been a major determinant of north-south differences in Europeans' attitudes to European integration. But these days a far hotter issue is the north-south split in Europe over economic policy, spending,…
The Forty Days of Musa Dagh
I recently read the great novel Forty days of Musa Dagh by Franz Werfel. It contains the dramatic story of the five thousand Armenians living in the north-eastern corner of the Mediterranean who in 1915 fled up the mountain Musa Dagh ("Moses' rock") to avoid deportation and probable death at the hands of the Ottoman authorities. The Sublime Porte (government) in Istanbul was…
Whence Europe? Past and Present Sources of European Union
I have now updated my 2010 doctoral thesis in comparative politics at the University of Bergen and optimized it for publication as an e-book: Whence Europe: Past and Present Sources of European Unification. My research question was why continental and southern Europe historically has been more favourable to European integration than the north. At the outset,…
City-belt Europe or Imperial Europe? Stein Rokkan and European History
Stein Rokkan (For a Norwegian version of this article, please see here.)The Norwegian professor of sociology Stein Rokkan (1921-1979) is internationally recognized as a pioneer of the discipline of comparative politics. Rokkan analyzed the interplay of politics, economy, culture, and territory in the emergence of modern Europe. His original interest in the development of political…
Europæus norvegicus 