The Construction of EU Normative Power*

Abstract

This article focuses on the constructed nature of the EU's so-called 'normative power' (NPEU). It proposes that, while a successful construction of NPEU would secure a role for the EU globally, challenges to NPEU constructions would disempower any EU attempts at its global reach based on such projections. The Middle East conflict is taken as a case in point. Copyright (c) 2007 The Author(s); Journal compilation (c) 2007 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Normative Power Europe meets the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

“…Pace (2007) maintains that NPE has thus far been ineffective in the Israeli-Palestinian case, while Tocci (2005Tocci ( , 2009 underscores the increasing divergence between normative goals and the EU's conduct on the ground, arguing that the normative position is not much more than a rhetorical device.…”

Uncertainty at the EU's borders: narratives of EU external relations in the revised European Neighbourhood Policy towards the southern borderlands

“…It was yet again a mix of internal and external developments that motivated the EU to engage in policy entrepreneurship. The creation of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership (EMP) of November 1995 benefited considerably from profound changes in the international system that allowed the EU to advance the process of integration (in the field of foreign and security policy) and thus engage in "normative region-building" (Pace 2007) in its near abroad. In contrast, the ENP of 2003/2004 responded primarily to the emergence of new EU external borders as a result of the 2004/2007 enlargement, a subsequently emerging new geostrategic outlook, and a new global environment, marked by notions of insecurity and threat, following the events of 9/11 (Dannreuther 2006).…”

The European Union, borders and conflict transformation: The Case of Cyprus

“…In this context it is argued that the more recent literature exploring the concept of the EU"s normative power (Manners 2002(Manners , 2006 Of course, domestic perceptions of EU interventions and the EU"s normative power in conflict situations have been addressed in the academic literature (Rumelili 2008(Rumelili , 2004Pace 2007;Diez and Pace 2007). This article proposes to add to this through a case study of Cyprus, and a synthesis of the work on EU bordering practice and the EU"s normative power, in order to enhance our understanding of why (van Houtum 2005) and how borders can be (re-and co-) constituted in conflict situations.…”

“…This article aims to transcend this literature through assessing how domestic interpretations influence EU border transformation. Fusion of the literature on EU bordering impact and the EU"s normative projection in conflict resolution, it is suggested, captures in a more nuanced way precisely how differentiated interpretations of the EU as a force for good (Pace 2007) amongst conflicting parties hinder or enable the EU"s ability to create a more fluid, networked (non) border in conflict situations (Walters 2004;679-682). To this end, it is argued that the Cyprus conflict, with insider and outsider dynamics, provides a salient case study of how EU borders are co-constituted and more specifically, how such borders emerge out of a dynamic political process.…”