Resilience and the EU's Global Strategy: The Potential Promise of Justice

Abstract

The appearance of ‘resilience’ as a core concept within the EU Global Strategy (EUGS) is a significant focus of scholarly interest while for their part, EU institutions are anxious to put flesh on the bones of that strategy. The aim of this paper is to suggest that far from representing a collapse of European ambition or indeed a ‘middle ground’ position between liberal ambition and realist pragmatism, resilience potentially entails a profound re-engineering of EU foreign policy, serving the cause of an overarching concept of global justice. Such an approach is grounded in reciprocal and accountable relationships in search of ‘fair terms of social cooperation’. It also implies the creation of institutional decision-making and adjudicating fora which are profoundly deliberative in their orientation. This paper will argue that 'resilience' has therefore the potential to be a transformative concept in the design and pursuit of EU foreign policy. It also faces significant challenges, not least where there is profound disagreement or stark choices to be made over foundational principles. Resilience nonetheless opens pathways to perhaps a different kind of EU foreign policy, offering significant added-value to EU member states’ diplomacy.