Assessing European actorness in a New World

• Autor(a) principal: Diamantino, Daniela Alexandra Reis
• Data de Publicação: 2020
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.6/11053
• topic: Alargamento; Eu; Europeização; Império; Pesc; Pev; Domínio/Área Científica::Ciências Sociais::Relações Internacionais

What is the nature of the EU’s policies towards its eastern neighbours? Is it to create a ‘ring of friends’ or an imperial strategy? Ever since the establishment of the European project, this subject has been heavily debated. The EU might present similarities with an empire, through ever-changing borders, its multi-level governance system, its use of soft power instrument or that might present itself has characteristics of a hegemonic power. The ‘conquest’ through political and economic accommodation rather than military force or conflict. The Union is, thus, believed to be acquiring the characteristics of a predominant international actor: a common currency, a central governmental structure in Brussels, the reinforcement of external borders, and even an attempt at a European army. Enlargement has, over the years, become the most important tool in the ‘imperial narrative’. The power variables that the enlargement process brings contribute to the byproduct that is the European integration process and the creation of a cultural, political and economic institutional diversity. Empires have also been characterized by a dichotomy, at a centre-periphery level through the disparities at an economic and political level. Meaning that they are, at times, accused in the international system, of unequal distributions of power or the attempt of trying to shape the international system according to its own personal preferences, but so do most hegemonic powers. The territorial fluctuations that the Union is constantly a part of due to its enlargement policy and due to the lack of an extensive array of military capabilities, since its military instruments mostly perform peacekeeping operations abroad, not a defence strategy. The civilian and normative power are preferred over the use of military instruments, maintaining the benign ‘repertoire’ of the union in the global stage. It is implicit, that the CFSP is not about deterring aggressors, but to understand and identify common problems that can lead to common denominators solutions. This does not mean that the EU does not hold a powerful representation amongst international actors, its ‘soft power’ instruments have many times worked in an assertive manner, the best example being the former eastern soviet republics to where the EU, instead of implementing a direct rule exported values and norms. There are no fixed borders in the EU, however, it is hard to imagine the staterelations to go back to what they were during the soviet regimes since the governance infrastructures have suffered tremendous changes.