The European Union Global Strategy: What Kind of Foreign Policy Identity?

Abstract

Some dismiss the recent EU Global Strategy as a “triumph of hope over experience”, an impracticable and therefore ultimately irrelevant statement; others are enthusiastic about what they see as perseverance and renewed ambition in the face of the present crisis. Although the 2016 Strategy appears more modest than its 2003 predecessor in operational terms, the range of deliberations that fed into it and the quality of the document itself demonstrate a greater maturity of reflection on foreign policy. A critical reading of the document shows that concepts such as normative power and differentiated inclusion of neighbours in the EU’s system of governance have all but disappeared. The emerging EU identity appears to be debilitated by the centrifugal processes of internal contestation and a drastically downsized claim for external power projection. An alternative plan for action will have to deal with the Union’s vulnerabilities and carve out a role that is distinct, yet in line with this new self-understanding.

Keywords:

• EU foreign policy
• EU Global Strategy
• European Security Strategy
• identity
• IR

Notes

¹ Council of the European Union, Shared Vision, Common Action (EUGS).

² Techau “The EU’s Global Strategy”; Lehne “EU Global Strategy”.

³ Council of the European Union, Secure Europe in a Better World (ESS).

⁴ Smith, European Union Foreign Policy, 2.

⁵ Techau, “The EU’s Global Strategy”; Biscop, The EU Global Strategy.

⁶ Mälksoo, “From ESS to EU Global Strategy”.

⁷ For details on the consultation and drafting, see Tocci, “Making of EU Global Strategy”.

⁸ Techau, “The EU’s Global Strategy”; Lehne, “EU Global Strategy”.

⁹ Tocci, “Making of EU Global Strategy”.

¹⁰ Council of the European Union, ESS.

¹¹ Dijkstra, “EU Global Strategy”.

¹² Tocci, “Making of EU Global Strategy”, 462.

¹³ Van Ham, “The EU’s ‘Caoutchouc’ Strategy”; Howorth, “The EUGS: New Concepts”.

¹⁴ Kodmani-Darwish, “The EU Should Promote Democracy”.

¹⁵ Mälksoo, “From ESS to EU Global Strategy”, 375.

¹⁶ Maull, “The EUGS Reads More Like a Symptom”.

¹⁷ For ideas on the EU crisis and solutions, see Nicolaïdis and Youngs, “Europe’s Democracy Trilemma”; Youngs, “Democratising Europe”.

¹⁸ Council of the European Union, EUGS, 51.

¹⁹ Wendt, Social Theory of International Politics, 224.

²⁰ Aggestam, “Role Theory and European Foreign Policy”.

²¹ Risse, “Identity Matters”, 88.

²² Lucarelli and Manners, “Values in European Foreign Policy”.

²³ Hopf, “Promise of Constructivism in IR Theory”, 175.

²⁴ Hyde-Price, “A ‘tragic actor’?”; Kagan, Of Paradise and Power; Haas, The Uniting of Europe, Rosamond, “The Uniting of Europe”.

²⁵ Lucarelli and Manners, “Values in European Foreign Policy”.

²⁶ Cederman, “Constructing Europe’s Identity”; Checkel, “Why Comply?”.

²⁷ Ibidem.

²⁸ Campbell, Writing Security, 62.

²⁹ Neumann, “European Identity”; Rumelili “Constructing Identity”; Wæver, “European Security Identities”.

³⁰ Guzzini, “The concept of Power”; Schwok, “Politique internationale et identité européenne”.

³¹ For a recent overview of the main theoretical perspectives providing a brief discussion of contributions to the study of European integration, see Pollack, “Theorizing EU Policy-Making”.

³² Wendt, “Constructing International Politics”; Diez, “Setting the Limits”, and “Normative Power as Hegemony”.

³³ Dunn and Neumann, Undertaking discourse analysis.

³⁴ Manners, “Normative Power Europe, Contradiction in Terms?”, 239; Therborn, “On the Scope of Norms”.

³⁵ Manners, “Normative Power Europe. Transdisciplinary Approach”, 570.

³⁶ Manners, “Normative Ethics”, 48.

³⁷ Nunes, “Civilian, normative and ethical power Europe”; Forsberg, “Normative Power Europe, Once Again”.

³⁸ For useful reviews, see Orbie, “Civilian Power Europe”; Wood, “The European Union”; Zielonka, “The EU as International Actor”.

³⁹ Guzzini, “The Concept of Power”; Maull, “Europe and the new Balance”; Posen, “ESDP and Structure of World Power”.

⁴⁰ Manners, “‘Normative Power’ and Security Challenge”; Stavridis, “Militarising the EU”; Börzel and Risse, Venus approaching Mars?

⁴¹ Pacheco Pardo, “Normal Power Europe”.

⁴² Merlingen, “Everything is dangerous”; Fisher Onar and Nicolaïdis, “The Decentring Agenda”.

⁴³ Whitman, “Norms, Power, Europe”; Forsberg, “Normative Power Europe, Once Again”.

⁴⁴ Laffan, “Europe’s Union in Crisis”; Averre, “The EU and Russia”, 10.

⁴⁵ McNamara, The Politics of Everyday Europe; Bartolini, Restructuring Europe; Risse et al., Transnational Identities.

⁴⁶ Diez, “Europe’s Others”.

⁴⁷ Kuus, “Europe’s Eastern Expansion”; Moisio, “EU Eligibility, Central Europe”; Browning, “The Region-building Approach Revisited”; Fierke and Wiener, “Constructing Institutional Interests”.

⁴⁸ European Commission, European Neighbourhood Policy.

⁴⁹ Prodi, “A Wider Europe”.

⁵⁰ Sasse, “The European Neighbourhood Policy”; Smith, “The Outsiders”.

⁵¹ Agnew, “How Many Europes?”; Wæver, “Imperial Metaphors”.

⁵² Christiansen et al., “Fuzzy Politics around Fuzzy Borders”; Casas-Cortes et al., “Re-Bordering the Neighbourhood”.

⁵³ Browning and Joenniemi, “Geostrategies of European Neighbourhood Policy”.

⁵⁴ Council of the European Union, EUGS, 7.

⁵⁵ Council of the European Union, EUGS, 10.

⁵⁶ Council of the European Union, The European Union in a Changing Global Environment. A more Connected, Contested and Complex World (Strategic Review), 8.

⁵⁷ Council of the European Union, EUGS, 15.

⁵⁸ Council of the European Union, Strategic Review, 10.

⁵⁹ Council of the European Union, EUGS, 1.

⁶⁰ Wagner and Anholt, “Resilience as the EU Global Strategy’s new leitmotif”.

⁶¹ Council of the European Union, EUGS, 23.

⁶² Kodmani-Darwish, “The EU Should Promote Democracy”.

⁶³ Council of the European Union, EUGS, 3.

⁶⁴ EUGS, 25.

⁶⁵ EUGS, 9.