European Union as Regional Power and External Relations

In the aftermath of the World War I and World War II that hit Europe in the 20th century, Continental Europe embarked on a quest for socio-economic development. Whereas coal and steel were the raw materials that led to war, reconstruction of Europe was initiated by a coal and steel association, which, in time, turned into European Coal and Steel Community, then into European Community and finally into the European Union as we know it today. This paper looks into EU foreign policy to find out whether the reflection of both economically and politically strong EU has hold so far. In parallel to its geographical expansion to the East following the end of the Cold War, the EU began a new search in the fields such as foreign policy, security and defence. This search helped the EU. exercise a certain power not only in its own continent but also the neighboring continents. This paper seeks to explain the existence and sustainability of that power through examples of EU foreign policies against Africa, Middle East and Central Asia. Moreover, the paper focuses on how and why the notion of power has shifted from civil-military power to normative power.