Normal Power Europe: Non-Proliferation and the Normalization of EU's Foreign Policy

Abstract

The European Union (EU) has alternately been described as a civilian, normative and ethical power. Even though these conceptualizations differ among themselves, they share a positive view of the EU as a foreign policy actor guided by the common good and disinclined to use military power. This article argues that these conceptualizations do not accurately capture the foreign policy behaviour of the EU. Similarly to other powers, the EU is a self-interested actor seeking to maximize its own security. To this end, it mixes the use of military and non-military means as necessary. Hence, the EU is a normal power, no different from other polities striving to minimize external threats to their security. Its ‘non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD)’ policy will serve as case study to show that the EU is a normal power.

Key Words:

• Non-proliferation
• European Union
• foreign policy
• military power
• normative power
• security

Acknowledgement

I would like to thank two anonymous reviewers for their comments and suggestions.

Notes

1. The article will concentrate on nuclear weapons, since most EU efforts have focused on them rather than on biological and chemical weapons.

2. On Burckhardt's (2004) literature review of the ‘EU as a civilian power’ debate, Maull is the most oft-cited author along with Christopher Hill and Karen Smith, two authors who do not specifically describe the EU as a civilian power.

3. Throughout this article, ESDP will be used because most of the foreign policy developments dealt with in here took place while the policy was still known by this name.

4. For the key tenets of (neo-)realism, see Morgenthau (1948) and Waltz (1979).

5. (Neo-)liberalism's foundational texts would be Keohane and Nye's Power and Interdependence (1977) and Keohane's After Hegemony (1984).

6. For a summary of the main precepts of constructivism, see Wendt (1999).

7. For an analysis of EU's non-proliferation cooperative policy and its effectiveness, see Álvarez-Verdugo (2006).

8. For the NPT, see Treaty on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons (NPT). http://www.auswaertigesamt.de/diplo/en/Aussenpolitik/Themen/Abruestung/Nukleares/NVV.html

9. Indeed, two of its member states, France and the UK, possess nuclear weapons.