Abstract
The EU is the world’s largest trading group as well as the most important donor of development and humanitarian aid. From an economic perspective, the EU is thus a major international actor, its trade and aid policies having turned it into a leading global ‘civilian’ power. By contrast, the EU’s efforts to develop a Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), and ultimately a defence policy, have not so far been successful (see Chapter 12). As the term is generally understood, therefore, the EU is not a ‘superpower’. Simply put, it cannot project power in the way that the United States can, since it lacks the military means to do so. Nevertheless, trade and aid can be used to influence developments in other parts of the world, not least by linking trade and aid policy with issues of human rights and democracy. The EU is increasingly establishing such links, thereby leveraging political advantage from its undisputed economic weight.
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© 1999 Finn Laursen
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Laursen, F. (1999). Trade and Aid: The European Union in the Global System. In: Cram, L., Dinan, D., Nugent, N. (eds) Developments in the European Union. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-27572-4_11
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-27572-4_11
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