The Changing Context of Global Governance and the Normative Power of the European Union
The changing global order raises interesting questions about the future of the European Union’s global power. The EU expresses multiple types of power, but it has been most famously characterized as a normative power, having an ability to shape the ‘norma
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1 Introduction The European Union (EU) is a novel type of entity in global politics. Its distinct nature has raised debates concerning the EU’s possible status as an actor,1 as well as debates on how to best characterize this specific ‘actorness’. The EU’s singularity is also considered to produce exceptional behavior. The most famous definition of the European Union claims that it is a normative power in the sense that it changes the ‘normality’ of global politics. However, there seems to be no agreement on the precise meaning of this power or its relation to other forms of power. The Normative Power concept has been used to refer to normative identity, normative interests, normative behavior, normative means of influence and normative ends.2 This chapter studies why and in what sense the EU can be considered a normative power. It also reflects how the current global order challenges the legitimacy and relevance of this kind of role conceptualization. This chapter asserts that the external environment is the most important conditioning factor to set the possibilities for the development of a certain role or identity.3 The external context also largely influences how the role of an actor will shift over time. Different role perceptions depend on power and its distribution. The Normative Power Europe (NPE) argument is a product of a certain time and environment, where several factors supported the development of the normative power role. Currently the circumstances of Europe have changed, which have
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Bretherton and Vogler (2006). These criteria do not presuppose each other (Forsberg 2011a, p. 1191). 3 This fact does not diminish the value of internal conditions, like the internal political context and capability in determining the role of an actor (see Tocci 2008). 2
H. Tuominen (*) Network for European Studies, University of Helsinki, Arkadiankatu 7, P.O. Box 17, 00014 Helsinki, Finland e-mail: [email protected] A. Boening et al. (eds.), Global Power Europe - Vol. 1, Global Power Shift, DOI 10.1007/978-3-642-32412-3_12, # Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013
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influenced the relevance of the normative power formulation, and posed new challenges for its implementation. At the same time, the entire concept of power, the relevance of different forms of power, as well as the distribution of power seem to be on in flux. This calls for a reevaluation of the EU’s power role and practices. This chapter offers an overview and evaluation of the relevance of the EU’s normative power in this changing global context. In this chapter, first a short historical overview will show how the concept of normative power evolved and how different historical conditions supported it. Then the more precise meaning of normative power claims is analyzed through a wider power analysis. This analysis assesses the relationship between different forms of EU power, and locates its normative power claims. In the conclusion, the relevance and possible potential of normative power formulation in future global p
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