Normative Power Research Articles

Re-examination of EU normative power in light of the revised enlargement methodology towards the Western Balkans

The aim of this article is to re-examine the concept of ?EU normative power? in the revised EU approach to enlargement policy announced in 2020. Drawing on conceptualisation of power in Foreign Policy Analysis the article applies the reading of the EU?s soft and hard power - both as capability and as influence - to EU normative power. The empirical part thus identifies above four elements within the EU?s promotion of its particular norms and within the EU?s strife for international normality via enlargement policy. The results show that the new enlargement methodology does offer change of EU normative power. The EU could more effectively condition the respect of its particular norms by an exemplary domestic practice assuring its own domestic and foreign policy legitimacy and in turn by developing and applying the needed capabilities for achieving attractiveness. Even though a plan of positive conditionality and better-defined conditions in direct negotiations carries such potential, a risk exists that the biggest novelty - the ?phasing-in? paradigm - would only explore EU?s norm-related hard market power capabilities by keeping the Western Balkans countries as candidates forever, thus undermining EU?s legitimacy and hard power influence of negative conditionality. To promote international normality, however, the EU needs to activate other elements of soft power influence, namely agenda setting and persuasion.

Mısır’daki Temmuz 2013 askeri müdahalesine yönelik Amerikan söylemi ve AB politikasının bir analizi

The Arab Uprisings in the regional sense came to a halt with the July 2013 military intervention in Egypt. The military intervention constituted a challenge for the global actors in terms of the level of their commitment to the principles and norms such as democracy and human rights. This article analyzes the US discourse towards the military intervention in Egypt by using the method of discourse analysis. Discourse analysis focuses on the reflexive relationship between discourse and context. Thus, the chaotic Egyptian context offers a good test for the US foreign policy. Furthermore, the EU policy during the Arab Uprisings will be addressed as a point of comparison for the US due to its normative character. Despite the support for democratic values and norms at the discursive level, the US foreign policy prioritized the longstanding alliance with Egypt and the Egyptian military based on shared interests. Naming the military intervention as a “coup” would lead to both political and legal consequences like cutting off the aid to the Egyptian military. In addition to the longstanding alliance, the legal consequences of a coup, possible effects of the US position on the European and regional actors as well as the need for keeping its reputation as a reliable ally contributed to cautious discourse and interest-based policy of the US. The US call for returning to a democratic order meant the acceptance of the results of the military intervention in Egypt and the maintenance of the discourse of “democracy promotion”. On the other hand, the EU policies during the Arab Uprisings also reflected a gap between rhetoric and practice, and they ended in another missed opportunity for asserting its normative power. As a result, the military intervention in Egypt confirmed the primacy of interests rather than norms and principles for the Western actors.

EU’s Resilience in the Eastern Partnership Region vs Russia’s Hybrid Aggression

The article examines the issues of counteracting the hybrid aggression of the Russian Federation in the countries of the Eastern Partnership. It is stated that European Union has been implementing the Eastern Partnership policy for more than ten years. This implementation has been a resounding success for all, without exception, the six target states. Ukraine, the Republic of Moldova and Georgia have advanced much more in their European aspirations. However, this does not stop the Russian Federation from further positioning all the states that were once part of the USSR as a sphere of its ultimate influence. Russia is also producing rivalry with the EU for influencing all, without exception, the Eastern Partnership states and even the EU. An overview of academic research analyzing the resilience of the EU in the face of Russia in the context of its impact on the Eastern Partnership countries is set out in this article. Some approaches have been used to define the EU as a “normative power” and Russia’s controversial policy towards neighbouring countries. The examination of the works described in the article concludes that the Russian Federation continues to regard neighbouring states as its sphere of influence, particularly Ukraine, Moldova, and Georgia. Moscow considers any attempt by a third party to interfere as an intrusion on its unique field of power. As can be observed from the investigated sources, Russia’s activities are scarcely diplomatic or focused on global democratic norms. In its Eastern Partnership strategy, the EU, on the other hand, utilizes values as a guideline. Simultaneously, Ukraine, the Republic of Moldova, and Georgia must demand immediate modifications to the Eastern Partnership policy. The potential of EU membership, in particular, must be appropriately explained by Brussels.

EU Military Operations as a Tool in the EU’s Foreign Policy Toolbox – The Main Trends and Limitations

The main aim of the article is to characterise and analyse EU military operations, taking into account their objectives, assumptions, successes as well as their limitations and weaknesses. The author focusses his research on EU activities in Sub-Saharan Africa. The following research questions were posed: – what is the specifi city and characteristic features of EU military crisis management operations; – to what extent and in what direction are military operations launched by the EU evolving; – in what way do EU military operations infl uence the perception of the EU as a civilian and normative power and affect the development of the EU as a security actor; – what are the main limitations and weaknesses of EU military operations and what is their future in EU foreign policy? The author applied the following research methods: factorial, comparative, scenario, quantitative, and qualitative analysis. The main conclusion is that the EU’s military operations and its military training missions should solely be perceived as one of the elements (measures) in EU foreign policy. As has been indicated in the title of the article, they are “a tool in the EU’s foreign policy toolbox”.

UNCITRAL Working Group III and Multilateral Investment Court – Troubled Waters for EU Normative Power

This article analyses the European Union (EU)’s and its Member States’ activities in the multilateral reform of investors- state dispute settlement (ISDS) in the early stages of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) discussions with the ultimate goal of the establishment of a multilateral investment court. First, the article explains the EU’s approach to the reform and its ambitious proposal of a standing investment court. Then, it demonstrates how difficult it turned out to be for the EU to promote the reform proposal in multilateral negotiations at the UNCITRAL. Finally, the article explores how the EU employs several means, including internal mobilisation, or engagement of other stakeholders, in order to ensure that work of the UNCITRAL continues in a direction of systemic reform of ISDS. In conclusion, it offers a view of how the EU normative ambitions play out in the context of different approaches of third countries and how legal factors complement its political preferences.

Introduction: Weathering the Storm?

Abstract Promoting peace and security in Europe, its neighbourhood, and in the world, is at the heart of how the European Union (EU) understands itself and its global political role. In recent years, however, both the tangible role of the EU in fostering peace beyond its borders and the Union’s famous image as a ‘normative power’ have met substantial challenges. The challenges, which fundamentally alter the context in which the EU supports peace and security, include EU-internal factors, such as democratic backsliding in some member states, electoral success of populist far right parties, or disagreements over migration. They also include external factors, notably the unravelling transatlantic relationship under President Trump or the rise of China in the peace and security domain. This article introduces the special issue ‘Weathering the Storm? The EU as a Global Peace and Security Actor in Turbulent Times’. It first discusses the numerous tests the EU faces in fostering peace beyond its borders, and how past research has evaluated and interpreted the effect of these challenges on EU foreign policy. It then outlines two interrelated shortcomings of past research: an ‘EU navel-gazing’ and focus on how EU policies come into being in Brussels, rather than studying how these policies are implemented ‘on the ground’ – coupled with a lack of interdisciplinary conceptual and empirical debate between peace and conflict research and European Studies. Finally, it discusses how the articles that make up this special issue help to address these shortcomings and how they contribute to the current trend in blurring the lines between domestic and international politics.

My values, their values: how value conceptualisations influence attitudes towards immigration

ABSTRACT How people conceptualise their values can be distinguished regarding several characteristics: the awareness of one’s values, the relevance of values in one’s life, the stability throughout the life course, their overall consistency, their normative power, and validity for the self and others. This article aims to explore how value conceptualisations influence attitudes towards immigration. The relevance of this question stems from two research strands: first, immigration research has critically addressed that integration policies increasingly center around values. The value conceptualisation embedded in these policies is suggested to foster negativity towards immigrants. I ask, if therefore value conceptualisations help to estimate a person’s attitudes towards immigrations? Second, attitudes towards immigrants are known to be influenced by value priorities (such as universalism and tradition). Is this relationship of values and attitudes moderated by how a person conceptualises their values? Data from the Austrian Value Formation Survey (1.519 participants) is used to analyse multiple linear regression models. The results reveal both direct and moderating effects of value conceptualisations on attitudes towards immigrations. These findings indicate that the way we think about our values is important to our attitudes on social matters and the way our values shape these attitudes.

The Concept of the ‘Living Constitution’ in Russian Constitutional Theory and Practice

Abstract In discussing the concept of the ‘living constitution’ in Russian constitutional theory and practice, this paper shows that the Russian concept of the living constitution differs from U.S. or European approaches to evolutive interpretation. The Russian concept has its roots in Soviet and pre-revolutionary Russian constitutional thinking. It reduces the normative power of the Constitution but allows an interpretation according to changing social conditions and gives the legislator a broad margin of appreciation. Whereas the 1993 Russian constitutional reform had been regarded as a paradigm shift with the intention to break with the past by declaring that the Constitution shall have supreme judicial force and direct effect, the paper also gives answers to the complexity of constitutional change and legal transplants and the role of constitutional theory and practice for the functioning of the current authoritarian regime in Russia.

Mobile phones, non-human agents at the service of assisted reproduction: monitoring and gendered dual allegiance

Abstract For sub-Saharan women enrolled in a protocol for assisted reproductive technology (ART), the use of mobile phones entails dual allegiance: toward the services of reproductive medicine and toward their transnational family. Indispensable for medically monitoring women’s reproductive bodies, the mobile phone enters the process for producing female gametes and contributes to the gender asymmetry typical of biomedicalized procreation. It is also used to maintain contacts with transnational family members who, from a distance, obtrude in the woman’s reproductive life. The use of mobile phones extends biomedical power over the woman’s body into her everyday life and the normative power of her transnational family into reproduction. Paradoxically, the mobile telephone allows collateral relatives to support the woman seeking reproduction assistance while also “hypermedicalizing” the woman’s daily life. Also paradoxically, this everyday companion is conductive to individual autonomy while also being used for new forms of surveillance and control. The data come from fieldwork conducted in the greater Paris area between 2011 and 2013 within a network of ART professionals and their patients.

Unpacking Normative Power Europe: EU promotion of security norm cluster in ASEAN

ABSTRACT The concept of Normative Power Europe (NPE) has sparked widespread debate over the EU’s external relations and its role in world politics. Whist the EU studies community has engaged with the NPE literature and studied EU norm-entrepreneurship at theoretical and empirical levels, the NPE literature suffers from two major shortcomings: first, it falls short in uncovering the multifaceted nature of EU diffusion objects across different policy areas; second, the effectiveness of EU norm diffusion remains underexplored. To remedy these limitations, this article aims to provide a more nuanced understanding of the EU’s projection of normative power by drawing on analytical tools from diffusion literature. By doing so, this research argues that the EU’s projection of normative power in relation to other international actors can be conceptualised as a process of diffusion of EU norm-clusters in various policy areas. It also reconceptualises the impact of the EU’s normative power as varying diffusion outcomes. By undertaking an empirical case study of the EU–ASEAN security cooperation, this research adopts the analytical framework to unpack the EU’s projection of normative power and diffusion of security-related norm-cluster in relation to ASEAN.

Becoming a normative power? China's Mekong agenda in the era of Xi Jinping

Abstract Maintaining robust diplomatic relationships with neighbouring countries in the Mekong region has become strategically critical to China. Since President Xi Jinping took office, China has been renovating normative power in the Mekong region, endeavouring to socialize the Mekong countries into accepting normative Chinese concepts, such as ‘community of shared destiny’, by mobilizing and reconfiguring their material and normative recourses. This article argues that China's normative power stems from two primary mechanisms: 1) an organized, top-down diffusion driven by political elites, involving inter-governmental dialogues, socialization via bilateral and multilateral cooperation mechanisms, and negotiations with countries co-opted into China-led connectivity and infrastructure initiatives; 2) a bottom-up diffusion of ideas from practices (i.e. exchange of goods, trade, aid) and the physical presence of China in the Mekong region, exemplified by the massive scale of infrastructure widely constructed in the region. Taken together, China's expanded normative engagement in the Mekong subregion is comprised of multiple, oscillating modes of normative production that have been ‘synchronized’ across riparian countries with varied geoeconomic and geopolitical circumstances. Our findings suggest that while normative Chinese discourses have been accepted by the ruling classes of certain Mekong countries, China's attempts to build normative power have been largely shunned by the civil societies in the region.

The European Union in Search of a New Global Strategy: Critical Analytics

With the use of the analytical works of the prominent Belgian researcher Sven Biscop, the article examines the main topics of discussion regarding changes in the global strategy of the European Union. EU foreign policy has been associated with the concept of “normative power”, which is seen as a kind of European “soft power”. Due to the influence of the global governance crisis, the COVID pandemic, the shift of USA geopolitical interests from Europe to Asia, China's great-power policy, Russia's geopolitical ambitions and other challenges, EU researchers and politicians are raising questions aimed at changing the strategic culture in order to ensure the primacy of EU vital interests. S. Biscop believes that while developing a new global strategy, it is necessary to turn to the traditions of geopolitics to be ready to protect interests and democratic values with the use of “hard power” both internally and externally. Strategic autonomy is a promising task for the further building of the EU. Under the instruction of the European Commission, the work has begun on the creation of a new political and strategic document “Strategic Compass”, its goals include defining the EU targets in the field of security, defense, and identification of threats. The discussion of a new global strategy outlines a trajectory for the transformation of the European Union into a global “Third Pole”. Sven Biscop's recommendations show that shaping a new global strategy will require a revision of the concept of "normative power" and turning closer to geopolitical realism.

The EU’s Discourse on Sovereignty: Content and Consequences

Emmanuel Macron‟s 2017 speeches gave start to the discourse on the European Union‟s (EU‟s) sovereignty. This discourse has been advanced by the national and supranational elite of the EU as well as by its expert community. The article identifies key characteristics of this discourse and its potential consequences for the EU and its relations with Russia. The four ways (attributes) in which sovereignty has been used as identified by Stephen Krasner are used as the theoretical basis of the analysis. With the help of discourse analysis, the author identifies three dimensions in the EU‟s discourse on sovereignty: these are Westphalian, interdependence and domestic sovereignties. The first and the second manifest themselves in the economic field (in particular, in the regulation of the digital sphere), the third one is linked to the discussion on cooperation in the field of security and defence. The discussion on strengthening of the supranational level in the field of security and defence substitutes the absence of the discussion on citizens as holders of domestic sovereignty; it limits the potential of the EU‟s sovereignty. De facto, the discourse on the EU‟s sovereignty is a response to global processes, where the EU finds challenges and threats for itself. References to values and to the EU as its agent form an important component of the discourse on the EU‟s sovereignty. Externally the EU as a result demonstrates both its wish for more independence from external players and its determination to maintain its participation in the globalization processes. The rhetoric of sovereignty also conceptually means the EU‟s refusal of ambitions to be a normative power. Sovereignty has also been an integral part of EU-Russian discussions. Yet the EU‟s discourse on sovereignty does not create any prospects for improving this relationship.

민사전자소송의 성과와 전망

Ten years have passed since the commencement of the electronic lawsuit on the merits of civil affairs on May 2, 2011. Over the past decade, electronic litigation has dramatically changed the pattern of Korean civil litigation. Electronic litigation has strengthened the people s access to judicial services, changed trial procedures quickly and efficiently, and enhanced transparency by promoting e-filing of records, e-case management, and e-courtroom. When the next-generation electronic litigation system is established in 2024, it is predicted that a very innovative and user-friendly system will emerge. Unfortunately, however, it is difficult to find that aspect in terms of the rules of electronic litigation. In order to achieve the goal in a short period of time, the special law urgently created with only 16 articles remains the same, and accordingly, the Civil Procedure Act designed for traditional paper litigation is losing its normative power over the reality of litigation. The time has come to revise the Civil Procedure Act in a direction consistent with electronic litigation, just as new alcohol should be put in a new unit. Before it is too late, the Civil Procedure Act should be revised to default on electronic litigation and the norms should be redesigned to suit the new ICT environment. It is necessary to lay the foundation for actively utilizing virtual trials, which suddenly became a reality due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, and to expedite trials and promote the economy by resolving small cases online in line with the non-face-to-face contact era. In addition, it is time to calmly refine the principles of the use of artificial intelligence based on social consensus to prepare for the storm of artificial intelligence in the future.

Saving the souls of white folk: Humanitarianism as white supremacy

Meanwhile a recalibration of the human challenges the ways in which life is universalized and rendered equal in biopolitical understandings of humanitarianism, and discussions of race confront humanitarianism with distinctly political relations that unsettle both universal norms and the claims of (professional) humanitarianism to be impartial and apolitical (see [27]). The rest of the intervention examines humanitarianism's role in producing and securing whiteness and white supremacy, drawing on the work of both Du Bois and Wynter, before discussing decolonizing humanitarianism in any move beyond its white supremacy. Even while racism has animated and structured humanitarian practice, the figure of the universal human underpinning humanitarianism's commitment to saving lives, relieving suffering and upholding human dignity provides humanitarianism with its normative power. [Extracted from the article] Copyright of Security Dialogue is the property of Sage Publications, Ltd. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Unpacking the dynamics of weak states’ agency

This introductory article provides rationales and contextual background for the special issue which examines how weak states in Asia actualise and exercise their agency in the twenty-first century regional or global environments. The article opens with a consideration of why attention is drawn to the agency of the weak. Weak states are often treated as ‘objects’ of international politics rather than ‘subjects’, and their foreign policy actions are commonly taken to be ‘reflexive’ of external constraints, such as fluctuations in the balance of power in the international system. We disagree with this view. We argue that weak actors can demonstrate varieties of agency regardless of their position in the international system in terms of material capabilities. To clarify this point, the article reflects on the changed and changing global and regional environments and order. Rather than seeing them through the lens of great power politics and its signature concept of ‘polarity’, the article offers an alternative notion, namely a ‘multiplex’ world, and identifies the key nature of order therein: multiplicity and fluidity. Both material and normative power have already and continue to become fragmented, decentralised, and dispersed within and across states. While emphasising that such a multifaceted and fluid world opens up a wide avenue of agency for weak actors, this article also notes that the weak has varieties of agency as potentials.

Community Mobilization Challenging Gender Power Imbalances: Women Sex Workers' Capacity to Engage in Health-Enhancing Practices in Southern India.

Research on women sex workers' condom use with non-paying intimate partners suggests social norms of gender power in these relationships constrain women's health-enhancing sexual practice. Theorizing gender relations and sexual practice as structural informs our analysis of elements of community mobilization interventions (CMI) that link to sex workers' capacity to engage consistently in health-enhancing practices, in this case, condom use. We use data from a survey of women (who exchanged sex for money in the preceding 12months) conducted in the context of an HIV-prevention intervention in southern India. Results of multinomial logistic regression indicate: higher odds of health-enhancing sexual practice with intimate partners and paying clients among women sex workers expressing collective efficacy; lower odds of health-diminishing sexual practice with clients among women sex workers empowered through peer interactions; lower odds of health-diminishing sexual practice with clients and lower odds of health-enhancing sexual practice with partners among women sex worker living in households structured by normative gender power relations. We suggest future research on how CMI promoting health-enabling social environments with women in sex work contribute to their capacity to engage in health-enhancing practices.

The Power without Responsibility of the Gaze. The Letter and Spirit’s Eye in the Humanities, from the Italian Perspective to the Robot

Abstract The paper identifies a continuity between the legal issue of the letter and spirit (or ratio) of the law and the invention of perspective as a symbolic form. The idea of perspective in Piero della Francesca’s Annunciation and the concept of “Italian perspective” in Arasse’s work are based on the aesthetic normativity of the painting in relation to the normative form of the norm, moving from the analysis of the invisible/visible nexus in legal theory. The notion of thirdness thus mediates between law as text and normativity as image, leading to the aesthetic enactment that conceives Italian playhouse as a form of theater, cinema, trial and university, as a symbolic form of knowledge and culture in the West. The simultaneously normative and aesthetic power of the gaze thus emerges as the removed from legal theory, until the problem of self-driving vehicles brings the issue back to the center of contemporary debate. The transition from frontal gaze to 360° vision suggests the theme of immersion as a new symbolic for the man–robot society.

Territorial Conflict, Domestic Crisis, and the Covid-19 Pandemic in the South Caucasus. Explaining Variegated EU Responses.

Territorial Conflict, Domestic Crisis, and the Covid-19 Pandemic in the South Caucasus. Explaining Variegated EU Responses.

Normative Power ASEAN? Globalisation of Asian Values and Its Limits

The idea of normative power Europe, pioneered by Ian J. Manners, is usually applied to the European Union’s foreign policy. It states that the EU promotes one’s norms and values among adjacent states, determining what is “normal” in international relations. This paper, along with the burgeoning literature that looks for normative power beyond Europe, argues that the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is another regional grouping that attempts to disseminate its norms and values worldwide, thus transforming itself into a nascent “normative power.” Structure-wise, this paper proceeds as follows. First, I will briefly overview the concept of Ian Manner’s normative power and its applicability to Europe and Asia. Second, I will determine the Asian values that may be the basis for ASEAN’s normative stance in the world. My comparison of ASEAN and the EU’s values are structured along with several topical issues: the role of a state in people’s quotidian life and the question of human rights promotion. I exemplify the latter with the Myanmar crisis that evoked harsh criticism of the international community. I conclude that the transformation of ASEAN into a “normative power” is rather dubious since there are limits in promoting the Asian norms and values. In ASEAN, there is a group of developing countries that reject Western universalism and struggle to find their own way in world politics.