The European Union as a Small Power

@article{Toje2010TheEU,
  title={The European Union as a Small Power},
  author={Asle Toje},
  journal={Wiley-Blackwell: Journal of Common Market Studies},
  year={2010}
}
  • A. Toje
  • Published 15 December 2010
  • Political Science
  • Wiley-Blackwell: Journal of Common Market Studies
With the creation of a common foreign and security policy (CFSP), the EU has entered the realm of power politics. Although the ambition to become a great power has been frequently reiterated, the EU has often failed to deliver stated policy objectives. This article has two broad goals. One is to outline the strategic behavioural patterns of small powers. The lack of scholarly attention to these states – the largest group in the international system – is a major omission from the International… 
View on SSRN
doi.org
106 Citations
Highly Influential Citations
4
Background Citations
41

106 Citations

Citation Type

Citation Type

In Search of Shared Autonomy: The EU as a Restricted Foreign, Security and Defence Political Actor
International relations in the twenty-first century are characterised by the lack of a clearly defined systemic order. Contrary to the period of bipolarity, there is no easy-to-be-found description…
Beyond Strategic Culture? Grand Strategy, the European Unionand Security Cooperation
This paper will consider the extent to which European Union (EU) foreign policy is driven by humanitarian and/or geopolitical considerations. The paper will also analyse the extent to which the EU’s…
EU external policy at the crossroads: The challenge of actorness and effectiveness
The goal of this Special Issue is to improve our conceptualisation and empirical understanding of EU actorness and effectiveness in International Relations. While the European Union aspires to play a…
An institutional approach to foreign policy-making: the EU, the USA and crisis management in Africa
Since the end of the cold war, the USA and the European Union (EU) have developed different foreign and security policies towards Africa. The USA has prioritised the fight against terrorism, while…
Declining Power Europe: The Evolution of the European Union’s World Power in the Early 21st Century
Abstract At the dawn of this century there was some optimism that the world role and power of the European Union (EU) would grow. This optimism was most vividly expressed in such books as The United…
The Transformative Power of the EU in a Changing International Order
The EU is a distinct actor in global politics. Researchers have developed different concepts to explain its sui generis nature. All approaches, however, converge in the sense that the EU has acted as…
Is the European Union still an attractive international actor? Challenges for the global role of the EU
The purpose of the article is to try to outline whether the EU is still an attractive actor in international relations, which is conceptualised as a specific soft, normative and the same…
Great Expectations: The EU's Social Role as a Great Power Manager
Through the case of EU foreign and security policy we reconsider the concept of great power. According to common wisdom, the EU cannot be a great power, whatever the pronouncements of its top…
Rethinking the Global Economic Governance: Some Considerations on a Perspective Reform of the G7
Since decades the G7 is an informal body where important decisions for the global economic governance are taken. The current composition of the G7 does no longer mirror the current balance of…
The EU as a New Form of Political Authority: The Example of the Common Security and Defence Policy
This article puts forward the argument that the EU should be understood not as a nation-state in the making but as a new type of polity that could offer a model of global governance. It uses the…
...
...

References

SHOWING 1-10 OF 76 REFERENCES
The foreign policy of small powers
The purpose of this paper is to redress the relative shortage of small power studies, expand the theoretical understanding pertaining to this peculiar type of states and reassert the term ‘small…
The European Union as a global actor
This book examines the emergence, role and future of the EU as an actor in world politics. It looks at the core areas of European foreign policy: economy; trade; the environment; development; common…
All the Way? : the Evolution of German Military Power
German strategic decision-makers have to reconsider their approach to the use of force. In Afghanistan, the Bundeswehr is faced with the challenge of a growing insurgency. This situation requires a…
The Security Challenge of Small EU Member States: Interests, Identity and the Development of the EU as a Security Actor
How are small EU Member States affected by the development of the European Union (EU) as a security actor? This article argues that the European integration project emerged as an almost ideal…
ESDP and the structure of world power
Disputes within the transatlantic alliance over the necessity and timing of the 2003 US-led war with Iraq and the modalities of the reconstruction of that country have produced doubts about the…
The European Union as a Small Power: After the Post-Cold War
Foreword Introduction and basic arguments The Anatomy of EU Security The European Union as a Historical Phenomenon European Defence: the State of the Union The European Security Strategy Revisited…
What kind of power?
Abstract The argument that the EU is a humanitarian – normative, civilian, civilizing – power has gained considerable attention. Echoing discussions about recent developments in the international…
Middle Powers and Regionalism in the Americas: The Cases of Argentina and Mexico
The study of middle-power diplomacies cannot escape emerging new standards of theoretical thought in international relations. These standards stem from the necessity, ever more widely recognized, to…
The Function of Great and Small Powers in the International Organization
To discuss the function of the smaller and of the Great Powers in the international organization is not easy. We are in a state of transition between a crumbling world and a world to be reorganized…
Alliance Formation and the Balance of World Power
The question "what causes alignment?" is a central issue in debates on American foreign policy, and the choices that are made often turn on which hypotheses of alliance formation are endorsed. In…
...
...