A pragmatist theory of power: understanding the EU’s transformation and security response to Russia’s war in Ukraine

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Abstract As the war in Ukraine has shown, the world has become increasingly unpredictable. The European Union (EU) must cultivate ‘protean power’—the capacity to innovate and improvise in the face of radical uncertainty. In line with a pragmatist approach, power is understood here as a process of growth, and not merely survival. It is a form of navigation, in that it entails adaptation in form and action to accomplish something in a world that resists intervention. The article explores the EU’s security response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine by focusing on the cases of the delivery of lethal weapons and the deployment of the EU Military Assistance Mission to Ukraine. In both cases, the EU has ‘broken taboos’ and undergone a process of transformation of its security identity. Yet there are significant obstacles to the formation a more creative and innovative EU foreign policy, not to mention the strictures of decision-making at 27. The EU must therefore learn to navigate complexity and uncertainty not just outside, but also within, developing an evolutionary potential that reflects member states’ interests without the need for continuous collective ratification.