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'Civilian Power' or Something Else? The European Union on its way beyond 'Civilian Power'

Kilian, Bertil (2007)
Department of Political Science
Abstract
The European Union's (EU) external appearance is often described as a ?civilian power? (CP). However, due to increasing military capabilities and coercive approaches in international politics, it apparently moves towards a ?harder? kind of power. Applying a role-theoretical approach, the study explores what kind of power the EU actually constitutes and thus studies whether the EU's characterization as a CP is still empirically valid. In order to do so, the work takes into account two parts of a role-conception: the self-perception of the EU and the view of how the non-EU ?others? perceive it. Hereby, the Union's self-perception is investigated by means of qualitative text-analysis of central EU-documents. The perception of ?others? is... (More)
The European Union's (EU) external appearance is often described as a ?civilian power? (CP). However, due to increasing military capabilities and coercive approaches in international politics, it apparently moves towards a ?harder? kind of power. Applying a role-theoretical approach, the study explores what kind of power the EU actually constitutes and thus studies whether the EU's characterization as a CP is still empirically valid. In order to do so, the work takes into account two parts of a role-conception: the self-perception of the EU and the view of how the non-EU ?others? perceive it. Hereby, the Union's self-perception is investigated by means of qualitative text-analysis of central EU-documents. The perception of ?others? is studied with the aid of a self-conducted expert-survey. The result of this approach is ambivalent. The EU still constructs itself as a CP, but is aware of the increasingly use of coercive and military means. The perception ?from outside? reflects the EU's harder approaches in the international arena, but clearly does not perceive it as a predominately military actor. Thus, the labelling of the EU as a CP is not suitable anymore; instead it constitutes an actor shifting away from the ?civilian ideal?. (Less)
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author
Kilian, Bertil
supervisor
organization
year
type
M2 - Bachelor Degree
subject
keywords
Civilian power, European Union, Role-theory, Perception, CFSP, Political and administrative sciences, Statsvetenskap, förvaltningskunskap
language
English
id
1321641
date added to LUP
2007-06-12 00:00:00
date last changed
2007-06-12 00:00:00
@misc{1321641,
  abstract     = {{The European Union's (EU) external appearance is often described as a ?civilian power? (CP). However, due to increasing military capabilities and coercive approaches in international politics, it apparently moves towards a ?harder? kind of power. Applying a role-theoretical approach, the study explores what kind of power the EU actually constitutes and thus studies whether the EU's characterization as a CP is still empirically valid. In order to do so, the work takes into account two parts of a role-conception: the self-perception of the EU and the view of how the non-EU ?others? perceive it. Hereby, the Union's self-perception is investigated by means of qualitative text-analysis of central EU-documents. The perception of ?others? is studied with the aid of a self-conducted expert-survey. The result of this approach is ambivalent. The EU still constructs itself as a CP, but is aware of the increasingly use of coercive and military means. The perception ?from outside? reflects the EU's harder approaches in the international arena, but clearly does not perceive it as a predominately military actor. Thus, the labelling of the EU as a CP is not suitable anymore; instead it constitutes an actor shifting away from the ?civilian ideal?.}},
  author       = {{Kilian, Bertil}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{'Civilian Power' or Something Else? The European Union on its way beyond 'Civilian Power'}},
  year         = {{2007}},
}