The EU's civilian/power dilemma

Bachmann, Veit

doi:10.1057/cep.2012.25

Cited by 10 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…The EU, on the contrary, was often seen as a counterweight to American militarism -a more civilian, normative counterweight (Bachmann and Sidaway, 2009;Bretherton and Vogler, 2006;Manners, 2002Manners, , 2010. It was perceived as a geopolitical model that is less aggressive than the United States, yet that has delivered peace and relative prosperity and that, at the time, was the largest integrated economy in the world (Bachmann, 2011(Bachmann, , 2013. It had grown from 15 to 27 members between 2004 and 2007, and has thus set an example of how assistance to 'weaker countries' and a 'fair partnership' can be of 'mutual interest' (author interview in 2008'mutual interest' (author interview in , cited in Bachmann, 2016.…”

Section: Shifting Perceptionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contesting the integration narrative: Shifting perceptions of EUrope

Bachmann

2023

European Urban and Regional Studies

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The European Union (EU) has long projected the vision of an integrating Europe, centred on successful regional integration, as a better geopolitical model in comparison to ‘others’, such as the Cold War superpowers, US neoconservativism or diverse autocratic regimes. The purported superiority of the ‘European model’ is thereby linked to credibly advancing the story of successful regional integration – internally as well as externally. This article suggests a narrative continuum between EU-optimism and EU-scepticism and argues that perceptions about the ‘success’ of the EU as a model for regional integration have changed between the first and the second decade of the new millennium. As part of this shift, EU-scepticism has gained in prominence over EU-optimism. This is related to a series of geopolitical ruptures since the late 2000s, in particular, the financial crisis, disputes on human mobility and border management, rising nationalism, Brexit and other right-wing populist movements across the continent. Focussing on the divisions within the EU as regards financial and migration policy, this article highlights three interrelated simultaneities. It argues (a) that process and discourse of (b) integration and disintegration have (c) internal and external dimensions. Empirically, it builds on interviews with African and European geopolitical elites that have been conducted as part of two research projects on external perceptions of the EU in East Africa between 2010 and 2018. It thus offers a snapshot on the shift of both ‘internal’ and ‘external’ perceptions of the EU against the context of wider geopolitical transformations over the course of this decisive decade.

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Section: Shifting Perceptionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contesting the integration narrative: Shifting perceptions of EUrope

Bachmann

2023

European Urban and Regional Studies

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“…The reluctance of critical academics to do so by adopting normative standpoints and constructive, rather than exclusively deconstructive, positions and studying progressive/liberating geopolitical phenomena has helped sideline the work of critical scholars in political and social practice. Scholars of critical geopolitics working on the EU (including ourselves) have for too long focused exclusively on identifying aspects of the ‘EU empire’, the systems of exclusion and inequalities that have come along with the creation of the polity of the EU (Bachmann, 2011, 2013a, 2016a, 2016b; Luukkonen and Moisio, 2016; Moisio, 2011; Moisio et al., 2013; Moisio and Luukkonen, 2017). We have neglected to study how European integration has contributed towards overcoming nationalism and war over large parts of the continent.…”

Section: Three Ways To Enrich Critical Geopolitics Through the Frankfmentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards a constructive critical geopolitics – Inspirations from the Frankfurt School of critical theory

Bachmann

Moisio

2019

Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space

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This paper seeks to enrich the scholarly potential and further develop the societal role of critical geopolitical scholarship. In particular, we elaborate on some of the challenges of what we call a ‘constructive critical geopolitics’. This is done through a selective inquiry into some of the key insights of the first generation of Frankfurt School critical theory, in particular as regards its reflections on political action and public engagement. We argue that incorporating some of the central tenets of critical theory into critical geopolitics has important implications for the subdiscipline – theoretically, empirically and as regards its applied/constructive role in society. Our argument seeks to contribute to the inclusion of constructive critical geopolitical analysis alongside the focus on thorough deconstruction of hegemonic knowledge productions, power relations and systems of exclusion. More concretely, drawing on critical theory as well as on geographic feminist and peace research, we call for more explicit normative positioning in critical geopolitical scholarship and suggest that we embrace the complexity of the geopolitical phenomena we study and, in so doing, to consider both their progressive and regressive aspects. We use our interest in processes of European (dis)integration, and the Brexit vote in particular, to highlight the need to further develop such multiperspectival analysis on highly complex and multifaceted geopolitical processes, such as European (dis)integration.

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“…The discussion about NPE runs parallel to the literature about the older idea of the EU as a civilian power launched by Duchêne in the early 1970s during the cold war, in which the Union is considered special in its use of civilian means and civilian aims (Duchêne, ). At present, NPE is generally seen as more analytically interesting than ‘Civilian Power Europe’ (Forsberg, , p. 2; Bachman, , p. 19). A related concept is Nye's idea of soft power, presented in the early 1990s, which is about the general attractiveness of units in international relations.…”

Section: Normative Power Europe: the Importance Of The Context Of Meamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The political resistance to colonialism and the subsequent attempts by the new states to assert themselves politically through groupings such as G77 and the non‐aligned movement illustrate that Europe or the west are not seen as inherent leaders. The gap between the stated normative aims of the EU and the effects of the EU's economic actions in fields such as agriculture creates tensions that might weaken the overall perception of EU normative power (Bachman, ). The existence of an African Charter on Human Rights and the many defeats of the western countries in the United Nations Human Rights Council and General Assembly over the last ten years do not suggest that European norms are seen as particularly attractive or that the EU is viewed as a leader (Larsen, forthcoming).…”

Section: Normative Power Europe: the Importance Of The Context Of Meamentioning

confidence: 99%

The EU as a Normative Power and the Research on External Perceptions: The Missing Link

Larsen

2013

J of Common Market Studies

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In research on European foreign policy two important axes of debate have been running relatively independently of each other for more than a decade: the study of the European Union as a normative power (NPE) and the study of external perceptions of the EU. However, the studies of external perception offer some findings that are central for the NPE debate. This article's argument is that the external perceptions literature points to a limited (if still identifiable) perception of the EU as a normative power depending on the geographical area. By comparison, the image of a powerful economic actor is prevalent. The article raises the question of whether the thin and geographically varied character of the perceptions relating to the EU as a normative power justifies the general designation of NPE. A new agenda focusing on geographical differences and interaction with other sources of power is outlined.

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The EU's civilian/power dilemma

Cited by 10 publications

References 42 publications

Contesting the integration narrative: Shifting perceptions of EUrope

Contesting the integration narrative: Shifting perceptions of EUrope

Towards a constructive critical geopolitics – Inspirations from the Frankfurt School of critical theory

The EU as a Normative Power and the Research on External Perceptions: The Missing Link

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