Global Europe

A very concise analysis of the role of Europe in the world can be summarized in three statements made 20 years apart. In 1982, Hedley Bull wrote, “Europe” is not an actor in international affairs, and does not seem likely to become on…’, while lan Manners in 2002 suggested that actually Europe through the EU was redefining ‘what can be “normal” in international relations. Rather than being a contradiction in terms, the ability to define what passes for “normal” in world politics is, ultimately, the greatest power of all.’ Round about the same time, Philip Alston and J.H.H. Weiler (2000) were arguing that ‘the Union can only achieve the leadership role to which it aspires through the example it sets to its partners and other States. Leading by example should become the leitmotif of a new EU human rights policy’.