Since the European Union (EU) moved beyond the internal politics of its Member States, and started addressing international issues via its Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), there has been a fundamental debate whether this activity could be considered as the EU foreign policy. Today, with the EU's wide range-ranging global involvement and its increased capabilities, there is little doubt that the EU has a clear foreign policy.
This raises the questions what kind of power the EU really is and how it is perceived by other actors in the international arena. With the US' civilian, military and normative abilities, seriously challenged after its ventures in Iraq and Afghanistan, all eyes are now on Europe, waiting for it to start playing a stronger role in international affairs. This paper will apply the concepts of civilian, military and normative power to the EU, in order to asses which of the three describes the EU best. In addition, it will analyse the capabilities associated with these concepts to evaluate the EU's ability to make an impact on the world stage. Concluding, the essay will argue that the EU can only be perceived as an actor which embodies all three concepts. Therefore the EU should be considered a 'Quiet superpower' in the making.
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October 11, 2009
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human rights and fundamental freedoms, and the rule of law, principles which are common to
the Member States”.
The idea of the Petersberg tasks definitely is not the intervention in the civil society of other non-EU states. Nor does that form part of its normative concern and neither does it make it into an union that “is founded on the principles of liberty, democracy, respect for
human rights and fundamental freedoms, and the rule of law, principles which are common to
the Member States”!
Apart from French interpretations of the above three concerns, the EU is an important power in its own reckoning and the above three do point at a desire to see the EU emerge as an entity that enjoys an equal repute that the middle powers do within the world community – largely the Nordic states, Canada, etc.
The idea of the EU as a military power would be self-defeating without in any sense meaning that the EU should be vulnerable to any external military threats. The Nordic states do not encourage any interference in third world states and civil societies – no matter how much third world socialist/terror/insurgent movements may seek to seek a parallel and legitimacy from what they term as socialism and what the Nordic states would term as gross violations of the human rights of the victims concerned, including the EU.