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The Crisis of the European Union as a Complex Adaptive System
Author(s) -
Lehmann Kai Enno
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
jcms: journal of common market studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.54
H-Index - 90
eISSN - 1468-5965
pISSN - 0021-9886
DOI - 10.1111/jcms.12702
Subject(s) - european union , refugee crisis , political science , european debt crisis , financial crisis , crisis management , debt crisis , sovereign debt , sovereignty , political economy , debt , economic system , law and economics , development economics , economics , european integration , economic policy , refugee , law , macroeconomics , politics
The present article argues that the current crisis of the European Union (EU) is much deeper and more profound than many EU officials and analysts care to admit. Taking the so‐called sovereign debt crisis and the refugee crisis as illustrative case studies it is argued that the crisis needs to be reframed as a Complex Adaptive System which is self‐organizing in a deeply incoherent manner and which current EU policies are not only not addressing but exacerbating. As an alternative, the article suggests using Adaptive Action as a framework to identify the conditions which sustain the current dysfunctionality of the European Union and makes concrete suggestions on how these conditions can be altered. Areas of further research are also identified.