BRUSSELS -- The European Union's successive waves of industrial, social, economic and monetary integration have come and, mostly, gone. The cutting edge of political debate within the EU now centers on an emerging Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP).
The French and Dutch rejection of the EU draft constitution, which proposed, among other things, the creation of a European foreign minister, has not stopped the push for a CFSP -- merely slowed it a little.
The EU has created a "Rapid Reaction Force" for military deployment and speaks increasingly with a single voice on issues involving the Middle East, Iran and North Korea. The EU is no longer just a spectator. The EU has already deployed policing and peacekeeping missions to the Balkans, Central Africa and Afghanistan. Now, for the first time, the EU has gone to Asia with its Aceh Monitoring Mission (AMM), thus signaling its changed role.