| Publication |
2011.
|
| Summary/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.
|