European Autonomy in a Changing World Order

Abstract

This chapter analyses how the EU as a foreign and security policy actor is affected by a changing world order. Fagersten argues that the EU is in many ways a product of the liberal order that has shaped international relations since 1945. But the liberal order is now being shaken to its foundations, as manifest in various ways in Europe. The author argues that the turbulence is leading to a fragmented world order in which cooperation among state and non-state actors is patchy and occurring in changing constellations. Furthermore, two overarching logics of interaction co-exist side by side: cooperation-oriented globalization and geopolitical competition, although they are affecting various policy areas in different ways. To determine how this fragmented world order is affecting the EU as a foreign and security policy actor, Fagersten develops an analytical framework that stipulates that a collective actor needs coherence (consensus), capacity (resources for pursuing policy), and context (a permissive setting).