The Normative Power: A New Perspective On The International Identity Of The Europe Union

As a unique supra-national actor in the international system, the EU has been attracting worldwide attention since its establishment. From the 1950s to 1970s, the EC, i.e. the EU's predecessor, was a relatively weak role in the world political arena. Although it played an important role in the field of commerce and trade, the influence of the EC in the international affairs was still limited within its former colonies. However, with the deepening and the expansion of the European integration since 1990s, as well as further enhancement of economic power, the EU, changed its name from the EC, was constantly upgrading its status in the international relations. But the EU is composed of a number of nation-states and is different from those sovereign states actors in the general sense. Therefore, the EU is not able to fully and effectively organize or mobilize military force to exert in international affairs commensurate with its international status. Accordingly, unlike the United States, who relies on "Hard Power", the EU prefers to choose non-military approaches in dealing with international affairs, through a series of foreign policies with a fusion of principles, such as democracy, freedom, human rights, the rule of law and good governance. This feature of the EU caused discussion in the Western academics. Researchers hoped to accurately define the role of the EU in international relations. They initially saw the EU as a kind of "Civilian Power". Later, other researchers argued that EU should be a "Military Power". In recent years, after further study in the perspective of "Civilian Power", some researchers pointed out that the EU should be accurately defined as a "Normative Power". The purpose of this thesis is to give a thorough and systematical introduction on this new perspective, and to analyze the international identity of the EU as a "Normative Power".After the introduction of the connotation of "Civilian Power Europe" and "Military Power Europe", there we have the origin and concept of "Normative Power Europe". "Normative Power Europe" means that there are normative differences between the EU and other actors, which was caused by the historical context, hybrid polity and political-legal constitution of Europe. Specifically, the EU established a set of normative principles, including sustainable peace, social freedom, consensual democracy, associative human rights, supranational rule of law, sustainable development and good governance, which came from a series of declarations, treaties, policies and rules. EU is inclined to adopt a normative approach in dealing with both internal and external affairs. The EU promotes its normative principles fused into its policies, through approaches such as informational diffusion, procedural diffusion and transference. This gives the EU a unique characteristics and charm when the EU devotes itself in the Worlds' peace and safety, promotion of the sustainable development, international cooperation, free and fair trade as well as human rights. In order to give a further explanation on the normative characteristics of the EU, this thesis selects the sustainable principle as a case study in detail. Finally, this thesis analyzes several challenges which the "Normative Power Europe" might encounter in practice.