LONDON -- So the French have voted down the proposed EU Constitution decisively. What now? Will the European Union fall apart? Certainly not. Does it mean that the attempt to impose a single "top-down" constitution on all 25 member states is dead? Probably -- especially if the Netherlands also votes "No" this week.
Does it mean that the EU will simply be kept as it is today, as many influential people, including a former British foreign secretary, advise and predict? No, that is the worst mind-set of all, guaranteeing further division and trouble. It is precisely the failure to appreciate how fast the world is changing, and how fundamentally the rise of the network age has altered the whole pattern of international relations -- and the character of the EU in particular -- that has led to the present impasse.
A whole army of European leaders, experts, officials and apologists have wasted years, as well as forests of paper, chasing after a flawed belief that Europe can somehow be welded into a solid bloc that will carry weight on the world stage, counter-balance American hegemony and confront Asian challenges.