European securityBelgium has divided and decentralized itself almost out of existence
The 22 march Brussels bombings have called attention to the crisis of security across Europe in the face of terrorism and radicalization. But the incidents also add color to the image of Belgium as a failed nation-state, one that seems egregiously incapable of protecting its own people. As it is, Belgium is no longer a nation-state in any functional sense, but rather a “federation” of three different regions and of three different “linguistic communities.” As a result, it is host to an array of police and juridical districts that don’t map onto each other geographically, demographically, or politically. If Belgians don’t imagine a way to reinvent themselves as a functioning nation-state, despite their linguistic and other differences, the consequences could be dire indeed. Without a state strong enough to keep all its people safe, and cohesive enough to include all its divergent populations as citizens of a common polity, the forces behind what happened in Brussels on 22 March will only fester and grow.
Georges Van Den Abbeele // Source: uci.edu
Only days after the arrest of Salah Abdeslam, one of the Belgian-based organizers of the Paris attacks in November 2015, Brussels was rocked by two suicide attacks that killed more than thirty people and injured more than 200.
The bombings have called attention to the crisis of security across Europe in the face of terrorism and radicalization.
But the incidents also add color to the image of Belgium — my native country — as a failed nation-state, one that seems egregiously incapable of protecting its own people.
As it is, Belgium is no longer a nation-state in any functional sense, but rather a “federation” of three different regions (Flanders, Wallonia and Greater Brussels) and of three different “linguistic communities” (Dutch, French and German). As a result, it is host to an array of police and juridical districts that don’t map onto each other geographically, demographically, or politically.
“Belgium” is now, arguably, just an intermediate stage on the way to a regularly predicted and yet never fully realized political separation.
So how, exactly, has it come so close to the point of simply ceasing to exist?
Language as wedge
Belgium’s “failure” has been a long time in the making. It stems from a century or more of determined and well-organized efforts to weaken the national state in favor of local control over almost all decision-making. This insidious politics of division has been advanced largely via language, the ultimate phony “wedge” issue in Belgium.
Though we share a country geographically smaller than the greater New York metropolitan area, we are a nation of polyglots, and most of us speak not only French and Dutch, but also English, German and other languages besides.
Historically a border region situated between France and the Netherlands and ruled by the royal Habsburg family, modern Belgium first emerged as an independent entity in 1789. But it was quickly absorbed into the Napoleonic French empire, and after Napoleon’s defeat in 1815, merged into the kingdom of the Netherlands.
Anti-Dutch sentiment, fuelled by both religious and linguistic differences, led to the revolt of 1830, which created the current nation-state of Belgium.
