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The Changing Context of Global Governance and the Normative Power of the European Union

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Global Power Europe - Vol. 1

Part of the book series: Global Power Shift ((GLOBAL))

Abstract

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 ‘normality’ of global politics. The normative power argument has been much disputed, and there seems to be little agreement over its exact meaning. The conceptual vagueness makes it difficult to assess the future of the EU’s normative power. This chapter argues that normative power is about the promotion of universal normative principles and multilateral working methods. However, both of these elements are challenged by the emergence of a post-Western world order and the resurgence of more traditional realist power politics. Currently the EU has faced difficulties in shaping the global environment, and its normative power role has been unsettled. This chapter presents how the normative power concept is conditioned by external and internal factors that have changed the constellation over time. This “temporality” also explains the nature of the current challenges for normative power.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Bretherton and Vogler (2006).

  2. 2.

    These criteria do not presuppose each other (Forsberg 2011a, p. 1191).

  3. 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).

  4. 4.

    Gerrits (2009).

  5. 5.

    Dinan (2004, p. 125).

  6. 6.

    Duchêne (1973, pp. 19–20).

  7. 7.

    Duchêne (1972, p. 43).

  8. 8.

    Civilian power concept was developed at least in three “waves” during the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. In the end there were several different perceptions of what this civilian role was actually about.

  9. 9.

    Orbie (2008, p. 7).

  10. 10.

    Bull (1982, pp. 151–153).

  11. 11.

    Manners (2002, pp. 236, 238).

  12. 12.

    Bickerton (2011, p. 26).

  13. 13.

    Manners (2002, p. 240).

  14. 14.

    Manners (2002, p. 252).

  15. 15.

    Diez and Manners (2007, p. 175).

  16. 16.

    Manners (2006a, p. 184) and Manners (2007).

  17. 17.

    Manners (2002, pp. 242–243; 2009, p. 12; 2006b).

  18. 18.

    Manners (2009, p. 12).

  19. 19.

    Manners (2002, p. 242).

  20. 20.

    Forsberg (2011a, p. 1196).

  21. 21.

    Manners (2002, pp. 244–245).

  22. 22.

    Aggestam (2009, p. 27).

  23. 23.

    Whitman (2011, p. 1).

  24. 24.

    Aggestam (2008, p. 4).

  25. 25.

    In reality, the EU was not a unitary actor and there were divisions between Member States.

  26. 26.

    Hyde-Price (2006, pp. 217–218).

  27. 27.

    Diez (2005).

  28. 28.

    Natalie Tocci separates three conditions for actor’s normative behaviour: internal political context, internal capability and external environment (Tocci 2008). Even if I consider the external factor most important in the construction of roles, it is not to deny the relevance of different internal conditions.

  29. 29.

    Dinan (2004, pp. 233–234).

  30. 30.

    A Secure Europe in a Better World (2003, p. 13).

  31. 31.

    Toje (2009, p. 37).

  32. 32.

    Manners (2006c, p. 168).

  33. 33.

    Manners (2009, p. 23).

  34. 34.

    European Security Strategy (2003) speaks only about the EU as a global player. Is the concept of ‘power’ avoided because of its possible negative connotations or because of the uncertainty about the EU’s power capabilities?

  35. 35.

    De Zutter (2010, p. 1115).

  36. 36.

    Forsberg (2011a, pp. 1190–1191).

  37. 37.

    Forsberg (2011a, pp. 1191).

  38. 38.

    Forsberg (2011a, pp. 1199–1200).

  39. 39.

    Lukes (2007, pp. 83–84).

  40. 40.

    The relationship between the concepts of ‘power’ and ‘influence’ is also difficult to define. Power has been treated as a subcategory of influence and influence has been considered as a specific form of power.

  41. 41.

    De Zutter (2010, pp. 1109, 1118–1119).

  42. 42.

    This division was originally made by Edward Carr in 1962 (Forsberg 2011b, pp. 218–219).

  43. 43.

    Manners (2002, p. 239). This categorization can of course be challenged.

  44. 44.

    Manners (2009, p. 10).

  45. 45.

    Diez and Manners (2007, p. 180).

  46. 46.

    The EU has copied the technologies and habits of other actors for instance in the ‘war on terror’ and the ‘securitization’ of ordinary life, or in trying to rival other ‘great powers’ (Manners 2009, p. 15).

  47. 47.

    Nye (2004, pp. 31–32).

  48. 48.

    Nye (2011, p. xiii).

  49. 49.

    Moravcsik (2010, p. 153).

  50. 50.

    Diez and Manners (2007, p. 179).

  51. 51.

    Forsberg (2011a, p. 1195).

  52. 52.

    Barnett and Duvall (2005, p. 3).

  53. 53.

    Their framework is however, distinctively constructivist (Bially Mattern 2011, p. 696).

  54. 54.

    Diez and Manners (2007, p. 183).

  55. 55.

    Manners original example of the EU’s norm-driven practice was the abolition of death penalty. Because this practice did not serve any European (material) interest, it distinguished the EU from other political actors (Manners 2002, p. 251).

  56. 56.

    Treaty of Lisbon, article 1.

  57. 57.

    Manners mentions the UN Charter, the Helsinki Final Act, the Paris Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and UN Covenants, and the Council of Europe/European Convention on Human Rights (Manners 2009, p. 12).

  58. 58.

    Treaty of Lisbon, article 21.

  59. 59.

    De Zutter (2010, p. 1109).

  60. 60.

    Treaty of Lisbon, article 21.

  61. 61.

    Blavoukos and Bourantonis (2011, p. 8).

  62. 62.

    Pouliot (2011, pp. 18–22).

  63. 63.

    Lucarelli and Manners (2005), in Blavoukos and Bourantonis (2011, p. 7).

  64. 64.

    The European Security Strategy 2003.

  65. 65.

    Toje (2009, p. 43).

  66. 66.

    Forsberg (2011a, p. 1194).

  67. 67.

    Jørgensen (2009) offers a good overview of how the EU supports effective multilateralism and global governance in different international organizations.

  68. 68.

    Moravcsik (2010, p. 153).

  69. 69.

    See for example Brantner and Gowan (2008) for an analysis about the EU’s human rights promotion at the UN.

  70. 70.

    Newman (2006, p. 160).

  71. 71.

    Newman (2006, p. 175).

  72. 72.

    Jokela (2011).

  73. 73.

    Laatikainen and Smith (2006, pp. 2–3).

  74. 74.

    Ortega (2007, p. 95).

  75. 75.

    Youngs (2010, p. 7).

  76. 76.

    Moravcsik (2010).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Network for European Studies, University of Helsinki, Arkadiankatu 7, 17, 00014, Helsinki, Finland

    Hanna Tuominen

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  1. Hanna Tuominen
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Correspondence to Hanna Tuominen .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. , European Union Center, University of Miami, Memorial Drive 1000, Coral Gables, 33146, Florida, USA

    Astrid Boening

  2. Center for Global Studies, Institute for Political Science, Bonn University, Walter-Flex Str. 3, Bonn, 53113, Germany

    Jan-Frederik Kremer

  3. , Chair for International Politcs, Ruhr University Bochum, Universitätsstraße 150, Bochum, 44780, Germany

    Aukje van Loon

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Tuominen, H. (2013). The Changing Context of Global Governance and the Normative Power of the European Union. In: Boening, A., Kremer, JF., van Loon, A. (eds) Global Power Europe - Vol. 1. Global Power Shift. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-32412-3_12

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