The Democratic Empire of the European Union: A Normative Leader or a Realistic Compromiser?

Abstract

This paper examines the EU's conflicting roles as a global actor between a normative leader and a realistic compromiser. Since the Kosovo and Iraq wars, the EU has experienced rapid progress in two policy areas: asylum and refugees; security and defense. Although the two policy areas belong to different pillars, they were both accelerated through the wars where Europe painfully recognized its incompetence. This paper argues that increasing prioritization of security issues eventually undermines the foundations of the EU's established commitment as a normative leader in the area of human rights policies. Fortress Europe with strong military power and clear borders would build the wall between Europe and non-Europe higher and reinforce the characteristics of the EU as a realistic compromiser that regenerates the exclusive nature of nation states, only different in its gigantic size. It would then be difficult to distinguish the EU's identity as a new experiment of peace projects from a neo-imperial hegemon of the world.