'Moral Power' of the European Union in the South Caucasus

Abstract

To my late grandparents Misak Vasilyan, Siranush Vasilyan, Gohar Movsisyan and Zaven Gasparyan who, having lived through wars and peace, transmitted intellectual stamina and configured my curiosity in politics and international relations vii Acknowledgements The venture of writing "'Moral Power' of the European Union in the South Caucasus" has been intriguing and laborious. The roots of my academic interest in political science were formed due to the political instability, economic devastation and conflict-ridden environment on the former Soviet terrain in the 1990s, while my inquisitiveness in international relations was framed as an exchange student in the USA in 1999-2000 with the competitive scholarship awarded by the United States Department of State. My academic advisor Professor Dr. Alan Cooper at Otterbein College-renamed into Otterbein University-played a major role in shaping and helping to sustain that scholarly drive. The internship at the Embassy of Armenia in Washington, DC in 2000 was instrumental for "sculpting" my vocation in politics and diplomacy. The research on issues, notably, security and regional cooperation, pertaining to the case study-South Caucasus-was triggered when I was based at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Office in Yerevan in 2000 and the Council of Europe headquarters in Strasbourg in 2003, respectively. Academic papers were written on democracy and conflicts when I was an M.A. student at the Central European University (CEU) in 2002-2003. My interest in the EU's history and decision-making and the undertaken analysis of EU's policy was incepted during my second M.A. studies with the prestigious Praesidium Libertatis scholarship and the research on the thesis submitted to Leiden University in 2005. Being lured by morality, the conceptual framework of "moral power" was devised in 2007-2008 when I was a 157 6 "Moral Power" of the EU through its Conflict Resolution Policy in the South Caucasus 207 7 "Moral Power" of the EU through its Democracy Promotion Policy in the South Caucasus 251 8 Conclusion 305 Index 313 xv

((D)(E-)) Valuation of the EU’s “Moral Power” in the European Neighbourhood (Policy) (ENP)

“…Conceiving of 'the EU as a 'civilian power' or 'market power' within the 'drawer' of neoliberalism whereby interdependence through the mobility of 'four freedoms' ensures cooperation, 'normative power'within liberalism bound by the 'democratic peace' and 'ethical power'-'on the borderline between liberalism and constructivism' whereby norms are ushered by identity (Vasilyan, 2020), a priori (neo-)liberalism is deficient due to its intrinsic normative rigidity. While the liberal(ist) credo of 'normative power' was broken down into 'neoliberal' logos (Parker & Rosamond, 2013), 'liberal' pathos (Rosamond, 2013) and ethos (Wagner, 2017), these seemed to be 'marketing' labels.…”

“…Unlike the 'EUlogising' 'civilian', 'normative', 'ethical', market' 'power Europe', 'moral power' not only taps on the mentioned adjectives but also, most importantly, on the concept of 'power' as the gist of the 'political' and 'international' affairs. Comprising three types of power, namely, 'potential', 'actual', and 'actualised', and seven parameters of morality -'consequentialism', 'coherence', 'consistency', 'balance between values and interests', 'normative steadiness', 'inclusiveness' and 'external legitimacy', 'moral power' espouses a 'hermeneutic' 'paradigm' (Vasilyan, 2020) 4 . These parameters, in turn, contain norms that may be tarnished, and have an ethical trajectory, unless violated.…”

“…The clash between contending "moral choices" (Douglas, 2019, p. 49) such as in the case of humanitarian intervention presuming violation of state sovereignty for the sake of the protection of civilians (institutionalised in the R2P), the concept of 'right intent' in just war theory or refraining from war altogether, transitional justice versus immunity, terrorism versus freedom fighting in the cases of irredentism, together with the globally increasing gap between the rich and the poor, and climate change versus economic upheaval remain unresolved in moral theory; therefore, they require weighing (Vasilyan, 2020). Hybrid wars have added complementary 'ethical dilemmas' (Vasilyan, 2020), for example, collateral damage in indiscriminate drone strikes (Konert & Balcerzak, 2021), human rights abuses through arms (and parts thereof ) export (Besch & Oppenheim, 2019), etc. 4 Thus far, besides the EU, it has been applied to Japan's policy towards the South Caucasus (Vasilyan, 2019).…”

“…Bypassing arguments about epistemological rationalism confounded with ontological 'realism', trespassing the 'postnormative' and 'pragmatic turn' of the EU, and surpassing the 'narrative turn' (Muller, 2019), e.g. with 'connotational meanings from outside' in the political neighbourhood (Vasilyan, 2007), this article will transcend to the 'interpretive turn' (Heinelt 1 Devised in 2004 the enp covers countries on the EU's eastern side (Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova and the South Caucasian countries-Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia) and southern side-Maghreb (Algeria, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia, excluding Mauritania) and Mashreq (Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria), as well as Israel and Occupied Palestinian Territory, peripheries. It intended to foster stability, security and prosperity through technical and financial assistance.…”

“…'Moral power' highlights the objectively bona fide prevalence of virtue over vice in tune with the pertinent type of power in contrast to the relative 'ethical power' and subjective 'normative power' (Vasilyan, 2020). Morality extrapolates the 'binary conception of good and/or bad, ethicsa conception of right and/or wrong, and normativity-of appropriate and/or inappropriate' (Vasilyan, 2020) Aspiring to 'speak truth to power' (Smith, 2003), ontologically, under the umbrella of moral theory the article will show the powerlessness of 'normative power', which is no longer 'able to shape conceptions of normal' (Manners, 2002, p. 239). Whereas the semantic normative form and ethical iteration have been retained in the enp, notwithstanding the New Cold War, the moral content has undergone alteration.…”