The European Union as a Critic of the International Order: The Power of a Normative Power.

AbstractThe European Union as a critic of the international order: the power of a normative powerKari Mottola, MFA, HelsinkiThe footprint of the European Union on the structure and functioning of the international order originates from strategies of change that fall, respectively, under the principal theoretical categories: management of multilateral institutions (liberalism); coercion of behaviour through political-diplomatic-military actions (realism); and construction of normative regimes by socialisation and conditionality (traditional or liberal-constructivism); change of power structures and normative circumstances through persuasion, reflecting criticism of the international order (post-structural or realist-constructivism).The survey, combining action and theory, brings forth the juxtaposition of norms and power in the strategic profile of the EU. In addition to its role as a proponent of effective multilateralism, the EU performs as a normative power par excellence, a driver of rules adoption, and a prosecutor of non-compliance, while as a wielder of structural power in the realist sense it is a novice. On the other hand, while the liberal institutional and constitutive strategies are predicated on the idea that structural power can be transcended by progressive normative policies, persuasion aims at distributing roles and benefits by the use of ideational power and occurs in a recurrent or indefinite pattern. Analysing the interaction of power and norms as driving factors in strategic behaviour, the paper evaluates the liberal and realistic forms of the normative power of the European Union, both measuring its credibility as a critic in the international order. The emergence of the EU as a global normative actor sui generis with a dualistic character is challenged by the adversity of the democratic peace project, caused by governance failures and cultural relativism, on the normative side and the reconfiguration of power politics, together with weakening of multilateral institutions, on the structural side.Of the four strategies of the European Union, tackling the complexity of governance and the transformation of structure as forms of change in international order, construction and persuasion, representing constructivist theory, wield the greatest and smallest impact, respectively, indicating the volatility of normative and ideational politics. Persuasion may be a growth strategy, however. Note: Statements of fact and opinion are those the author and do not imply endorsement by the Government of Finland. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]