"It fires back! The Impact of the European Union’s Common Foreign and Security Policy(CFSP) on the Evolution of a European identity"

Guessgen, Florian (2000) "It fires back! The Impact of the European Union’s Common Foreign and Security Policy(CFSP) on the Evolution of a European identity". In: UNSPECIFIED, Corfu, Greece.

Preview

PDF Download (100Kb) | Preview

Abstract

Ever since the conclusions of the European Councils of Cologne and Helsinki – in other words: ever since the watershed event of the war in Kosovo in spring 1999 – the issue of the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) and even a Common European Policy on Security and Defence (CEPSD) are on the top of the European agenda. The European Union is finding itself in the midst of a discussion about the means it should dispose of in order to cohesively act abroad, diplomatically and militarily. This recent and breath-taking development marks a major shift in the general discourse on the European Union. The European Union, long conceived of as a "mere" civilian power is now arriving at a language of the past, a language which may provocatively called the language of "war and peace". This discourse entails central political questions. Europe is discussing its role in the international diplomatic and security environment. It defines the kind of international order it envisages. By the same token, foreign policy is not only about a state’s relationship with the outside world. The content of foreign policy equally reveals which values and principles constitute a state’s political community internally. Thus, the evolution of a European system of foreign policy governance allows for an alternative view on one of the most contested and most opaque puzzles of European integration: The configuration of the European citizenry’s identity. What impact has the institutional development of a Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) exerted on the shape of the European polity and its identity? Does European foreign policy in fact "fire back" on identity as the title of this paper so confidently claims? Under which conditions does it shape which kind of (substantive) idea of a European citizenry? In answering this question, I will first, embark on a conceptual discussion. How do we need to conceive of foreign policy in order to allow for the linkage between foreign policy and citizenship? The decisive step consists of using an extended definition of the state as the base-line of inquiry. Conceptually, the state may not be based merely upon the presence of centralised government and territorial sovereignty, but it equally requires the inclusion of the concept of identity as an important benchmark. Accordingly, in the first part of this paper, I will elaborate on a constructivist definition of the state as an analytical blue-print for examining the texture of the European Union. In the second part, I will devise tentative hypothesis on the impact of the evolution of the European foreign policy governance system on the definition of a European identity. This section is split in two periods: A pre-Kosovo period and a post-Kosovo period. The pre-Kosovo period, I find, is not likely to have contributed to the development of a common identity conception. The post-Kosovo period, on the other hand, has opened up considerable opportunities to do so. It has created leeway for a discourse which is central for the emergence of a European identity: The de-coupling of the United States.

Actions (login required)