Democratic foundations of EU foreign policy: narratives and the myth of EU exceptionalism

Abstract

How can we better understand weaknesses in the democratic legitimacy underpinning European Union (EU) foreign, security and defence policy? The argument presented here is that this weakness can in part be seen as a function of poor narrative construction in Europe. The nascent European public space does not yet provide a solid foundation from which such narratives might be established, contested and developed and from which they might aspire to some hegemony. Instead, the Union remains reliant upon an unstable intersection of national foreign policy narratives and the weak instantiation of an élite European narrative based on exceptionalism. This fails to create a sense of ownership and legitimacy over the international actions of the Union, adversely impacting its effectiveness and credibility. The élite narrative has solid roots in policy, academic and specialist constituencies but is weakly disseminated and vigorously contested.

Keywords:

• Democratic legitimacy
• European Union
• foreign policy
• narratives