The Routledge Handbook of European Public Policy by Nikolaos Zahariadis & Laurie Buonanno

Author:Nikolaos Zahariadis & Laurie Buonanno [Zahariadis, Nikolaos & Buonanno, Laurie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781138927339
Google: tC4UswEACAAJ
Goodreads: 26519052
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2017-11-15T00:00:00+00:00

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The conceptualization of the EU as a factor which affects actors’ behaviour rather than an actor itself proceeded from the inward-looking security community concept to the notion of the EU’s ‘International presence’. This concept detaches the analysis of the EU’s international activities from the statist perspective and captures the ways in which the EU ‘operates to influence the actions and expectations’ not only of its member states but also of its counterparts around the globe (Allen and Smith, 1990: 21). As the CFSP evolved and developed researchers identified a process of convergence of national foreign policies in which EU membership affected the way member countries interacted with third countries (Smith, 2004). Likewise the concept of EU external governance interprets the EU as a process enmeshed in other multilateral processes, focusing on the ways in which the practices and interactions which unfold within it realize certain values and principles (Lavenex and Schimmelfennig, 2009). Linklater describes the EU as a civilizing process which has transformed intra-EU politics and which could transform global politics. The EU’s civilizing process domesticates international relations by creating a sense of common responsibility and mutual commitment. In the External arena the process consists of enlarging the EU’s zone of peace, promoting human rights among interlocutors, assisting in the prevention of terrorism, reducing environmental harm, and donating aid (Linklater, 2011).

The conceptualization of the EU as an agent in global politics, able to define its collective European goals, and choose the proper means for perusing them proceeded from the argument that the EU could exercise a unique – Civilian – form of power to the argument that the EU is already an embodiment of a new – Normative – kind of power, which it strives to extend toward the global scene (Laïdi, 2008; Sjursen, 2006; Whitman, 2011). The concept of normative power Europe is intrinsically linked to the work on soft power (Keohane and Nye, 1977) within the international relations discipline, but it expands it substantially toward a fundamental existential claim. Normative power Europe conceives of the EU ‘as a promoter of norms which displace the state as the centre of concern . . . (with) the ability to define what passes as “normal” in world politics’ (Manners, 2002: 236). The normative power Europe concept inspired many paraphrases and elaborations over the years, such as ethical power Europe (Mayer, 2008), divided power Europe (Wagnsson, 2010), pragmatic power Europe (Wood, 2011). Concepts such as market power Europe (Damro, 2012) and regulatory power Europe (Young, 2014) focus on the degree and methods by which the EU exerts influences through the constraints it and its internal rules impose on global actors. For example multinational corporations often change their practices in order to adapt to the EU’s rules, diffusing these rules beyond the realm of the EU to their activities elsewhere.

Conceiving of the EU as a potential agent, or an agent in the making, does not automatically entail optimistic expectations regarding its ability to act effectively at any given time. In the most recent

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