"IMHO, the most interesting political innovation since the creation of the UN is the creation of the EU - regardless of what one may think of certain EU policies. I mean, the EU is the first ever created confederacy of independent states - and formed by mutual consensus of all participants rather than by a hegemonic force. Not seeing the innovative character of that development smacks of British insularism and Europhobia :)."
Theoretically, it's innovative. Concretely, all I can see is Hitler's plan (the enslavement of the periphery) put into action by political/economic rather than military means.
J.