Solidarisation and its limits: the EU and the transformation of international society

Abstract

The literature on international societies has widely recognised that the EU has formed a regional international society that has transcended the rules of Westphalian statecentred pluralism. However, the analysis of the consequences of this transcendence for global international society has so far been limited. For the most part, such studies have focused on the EU as a normative power, and even within that literature, there is much more attention given to the question of whether the EU acts as a normative power rather than to the consequences of its actions. This is intriguing given that Ian Manners, who originally coined the term, thought of the EU's ability to fundamentally transform the pluralist international society as the ultimate litmus test of normative power. In this paper, we want to explore this question further. Our argument is that the EU contributes to a solidarisation of international society, and we will show this in relation to two cases, human rights and regionalisation. However, we will also argue that this contribution is not unambiguous. Instead, it is characterised by internal contradictions and tensions.