The European Union as a Regional Normative Hegemon: The Case of European Neighbourhood Policy

Abstract

In discussions of the European Union (EU) as an international actor, there is a wide range of interpretations in the literature. The Union is often seen as a ‘civilian’ or ‘normative’ power – in essence a force for good in the world – but in the work of scholars studying the EU there are many different normative assumptions and agendas. Normativity is of course something we can hardly escape or do without, but as such, our normative ideas can be amended or rejected and the role given to them in building social scientific explanations can vary in terms of the intensity and degree of consciousness involved in utilizing the concepts.

Previous drafts or ideas related to this chapter have been presented and discussed in the Research Seminar, Department of Political Science, University of Turku, November 2005; the ERI Seminar at the University of Birmingham, March 2006; the fourth CEEISA Convention in Tartu, June 2006; and the tenth Biennial EUSA Conference, Montreal, May 2007. I want to thank all the participants on these occasions for challenging and consequently improving my ideas. Special thanks are due to Richard Whitman and Graham Timmins for their comments and enthusiasm.