Three Ways of Speaking Europe to the World: Markets, Peace, Cosmopolitan Duty and the EU's Normative Power

Abstract

A sympathetic critique of the literature on 'Normative Power Europe' that incorporates economic liberalism into the repertoire of the EU's constitutive principles.• The derivation of three ideal type liberal modes of justification for external action and a discussion of their potential complementarities and contradictions. • An application of the three modes to the case of EU external action.This article-a sympathetic critique of the literature on 'Normative Power Europe'-observes that the rationales for EU external action, while understandable in terms of the concept of 'normative power', emerge from a variety of overlapping and potentially contradictory liberal arguments. For the purposes of the argument, these liberalisms are organised into three ideal types: market liberalism, the pursuit of peace through liberal means and the ethic of cosmopolitan duty. The article suggests that while it is possible to associate different domains of EU external action with different varieties of liberal discourse, it is often more appropriate to see these policy domains as sites of struggle, negotiation and (perhaps) reconciliation between competing liberal projects.

Normative Power Europe Caving In? EU under Pressure of Russian Information Warfare

“…This article does not aim to settle whether the EU is a normative power or not but contributes to theorizing on what normative power is and how it should be measured (Aggestam, ; Merlingen, ; Rosamond, ; Sjursen, ). This is done by engaging with Diez and Manners’ proposition that the EU's normative power can be measured by focusing on its communication or discourse.…”

“…This is done by engaging with Diez and Manners’ proposition that the EU's normative power can be measured by focusing on its communication or discourse. Previous research on EU communication has investigated what self‐image the EU materializes in its public diplomacy (see Rosamond, ; Pomorska and Vanhoonacker, ) as well as external reactions to the EU as a normative power (Daskalova, ; Larsen, ; Romanova, ). Yet, Diez () takes the research on EU communication a step further, calling for self‐reflection, or self‐reflexivity, meaning that the EU ought to recognize its own failures and reflect on the discursive context in which it is engaging.…”

“…Other scholars question the very idea that the EU is a normative power, viewing normative power as a cover for European economic interests and hard power (Hettne and Söderbaum, 2005;Hyde-Price, 2006, Hyde-Price, 2008Zimmerman, 2007). 1 This article does not aim to settle whether the EU is a normative power or not but contributes to theorizing on what normative power is and how it should be measured (Aggestam, 2008;Merlingen, 2007;Rosamond, 2014;Sjursen, 2006). This is done by engaging with Diez and Manners' proposition that the EU's normative power can be measured by focusing on its communication or discourse.…”

Welfare Markets in Europe

“…Th roughout the 1990s and 2000s, the important potential gains involved with services trade were seen by powerful economies as a means to off set potential losses due to further liberalization in agriculture (Young 2007 ). More broadly, market liberalism-as a policy practice and as a discourse-is a key instrument for the EU to exercise its infl uence on the global stage (Rosamond 2013 ). More than any other policy realm, however, the issue of welfare services in international trade negotiations epitomizes the tension at the heart of the EU's 'embedded liberalism' compromise.…”

The West and the Global Power Shift

“…The risk that the ethnic confl icts that were bloodying the former Yugoslavia could spill over into the surrounding region was real. The legal and institutional reform of the EU in 1993-a dramatic upgrade of the European integration process, which for the fi rst time formally encompassed security responsibilities-and the subsequent dual enlargement of the EU itself and NATO put these concerns to rest (Wallander 2000 ;Rosamond 2014 ). A re-unifi ed Germany was anchored to an established European system of governance, the potential of resurgent nationalism in Eastern Europe to trigger confl icts within and between states and derail democratization processes was undermined and the Balkans were pacifi ed.…”