Empire Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ===European Union=== Mehmet Akif Okur finds trends in political science that perceive the contemporary world's order via the re-territorialization of ''political space'', the re-emergence of ''classical imperialist practices'' (such as the duality between those who are "inside" and those who are "outside"), the deliberate weakening of international organizations, the restructured international economy, economic nationalism, the expanded arming of most countries, the proliferation of nuclear weapon capabilities and the [[politics of identity]] emphasizing a state's ''subjective'' perception of its place in the world, as a nation and as a civilization. These changes constitute the "Age of Nation Empires". Nation-empire regionalism claims sovereignty over their respective (regional) political (social, economic, ideologic), cultural, and military spheres and denotes the return of geopolitical power from ''global'' power blocs to ''regional'' power blocs. The European Union is one such power bloc.<ref name="auto"/> Since the [[European Union]] was formed as a polity in 1993, it has established its own currency, its own [[Citizenship of the European Union|citizenship]], established discrete [[Common Security and Defence Policy|military forces]], and exercises its limited hegemony in the Mediterranean, eastern parts of Europe, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Asia. The big size and high development index of the [[Economy of the European Union|EU economy]] often has the [[Brussels effect|ability to influence]] global trade regulations in its favor. The political scientist [https://web.archive.org/web/20070902225817/http://users.ox.ac.uk/~polf0040/ Jan Zielonka] suggests that this behavior is imperial because it coerces its neighbouring countries into adopting its ''European'' economic, legal, and political structures.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Ian Black |date=December 20, 2002 |title=Living in a euro wonderland |work=Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/elsewhere/journalist/story/0,,863888,00.html |access-date=2008-01-06}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=December 13, 2002 |title=EU gets its military fist |work=BBC News |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/2574625.stm |access-date=2008-01-06}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Nikolaos Tzifakis |date=April 2007 |title=EU's region-building and boundary-drawing policies: the European approach to the Southern Mediterranean and the Western Balkans 1 |journal=Journal of Southern Europe and the Balkans |publisher=informaworld |volume=9 |issue=1 |pages=47β64 |doi=10.1080/14613190701217001 |s2cid=154857668}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Stephen R. Hurt |year=2003 |title=Co-operation and coercion? The Cotonou Agreement between the European Union and acp states and the end of the LomΓ© Convention |url=http://taylorandfrancis.metapress.com/index/HNG8A7X4G9BWAM84.pdf |journal=Third World Quarterly |publisher=informaworld |volume=24 |pages=161β176 |doi=10.1080/713701373 |access-date=2007-01-06 |s2cid=153354532 }}{{Dead link|date=December 2021 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |author=Bruno Coppieters |author2=Michael Emerson |author3=Michel Huysseune |author4=Tamara Kovziridze |author5=[[Nathalie Tocci]] |author6=Gergana Noutcheva |author7=Marius Vahl |title=Europeanisation and Conflict Resolution: Case Studies from the European Periphery |url=http://www.belspo.be/belspo/home/publ/pub_ostc/WM/rS10303_en.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071202121945/http://www.belspo.be/belspo/home/publ/pub_ostc/WM/rS10303_en.pdf |archive-date=2007-12-02 |access-date=2008-01-06 |publisher=Belgian Science Policy}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Jan Zielonka |url=http://users.ox.ac.uk/~polf0040/IAReview.pdf |title=Europe as Empire: The Nature of the Enlarged European Union |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-19-929221-9 |location=Oxford |access-date=2008-01-06 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071202121945/http://users.ox.ac.uk/~polf0040/IAReview.pdf |archive-date=2007-12-02 }}</ref> [[Tony Benn]], a left-wing [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]] MP of the United Kingdom, opposed the [[European integration]] policies of the European Union by saying, "I think they're (the European Union) building an empire there, they want us (the United Kingdom) to be a part of their empire and I don't want that."<ref>{{cite AV media|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0wFii8klNg| archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211104/f0wFii8klNg| archive-date=2021-11-04 | url-status=live|author=Tony Benn|work=[[Oxford Union]]|title=European Union|date=25 March 2013}}{{cbignore}}</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. 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