New Medievalism

The term ‘new medievalism’ has emerged to indicate the erosion of the Westphalian state system in which states increasingly have to share political relevance and authority with cities (and city networks), subnational (Flanders, Scotland) and cross-border regions (Euregion Meuse-Rhine), regional organizations like the European and African Union, global institutions, and transnational identities and value systems. In the Middle Ages, local communities were equally subject to overlapping authorities and communities, e.g. from the local nobleman, over the king, to the Holy Roman Empire and Christendom led by the Pope (Friedrichs, 2001).