Unpacking Interests in Normative Power Europe

Abstract

The concept of normative power Europe accurately captured the distinctiveness of EU's international practices. However, it fell victim to social constructivism, from which it derived an exclusionary ontology perpetuating the dualism between norms and interests. To conceive those notions as two faces of the same coin, one needs a thicker ontology. This is what Bourdieu provides for in anchoring norms and interests in social fields. Interest is simultaneously what ties actors to particular games (generic interest) and what makes them make particular moves in these games (specific interest). To illustrate how Bourdieu's sociology shapes a better understanding of normative power Europe, I explore the transmission of EU's integrated border management in Central Asia. In this case, EU power elites delegate the business of wielding this normative power of Europe to a Vienna-based international street corner society.