KİTAP İNCELEMESİ: Eurowhiteness: Culture, Empire and Race in the European Project

Abstract

Taking Europe as a post-national and inclusive entity is not something new. It has often been taken for granted. Hans Kundnani’s book challenges this assumption by tracing the cultural, racial, and imperial dimensions underpinning the European Union (EU). The book critically explores European identity and the EU through Kundnani’s personal experiences. Raised in Britain by an Indian father and a Dutch mother, Kundnani developed multi-layered attachments to Britain, a fellow EU member state, the Netherlands, and a country once colonized, India. This multi-layered attachment shaped his distance from the European ideal. While initially perceiving the EU as a force for good, Kundnani’s work experience at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) and his observations of transformations following the 2010 Eurozone crisis led him toward a more critical stance. Kundnani briefly outlines the history of the European idea, from Ancient Greece to World War II, providing a historical basis for his argument. He then focuses his analysis on the “decade of crises,” beginning with the Euro crisis in 2010 and ending with the war in Ukraine in 2022, as he argues this period reveals the EU’s shift from a universal-liberal “model” to a defensive, culture-centric “civilization” vision. The book represents a critical perspective on the foundations of Europe and its identity

Keywords

Eurowhiteness, Culture, Empire

Citation

Mustafa Onur Yalçın, "Hans Kundnani, Eurowhiteness: Culture, Empire and Race in the European Project (London, Hurst, 2023)" Uluslararası İlişkiler, Advanced Online Publication, 30 September 2025, pp. 1-4. DOI: 10.33458/uidergisi.1792954

Affiliations

Mustafa Onur YALÇIN Ph.D., Research Assistant, Middle East Institute, Sakarya University, Sakarya E-Mail: [email protected] Orcid: 0000-0002-4460-731X