From a regional to a global power, in potency: The EU’s global strategy

Abstract

This chapter offers an analysis of the potential implications of the 2016 European Global Strategy on the spaces around the EU and further afield. While the European Neighbourhood Policy sought to gradually Europeanise the Mediterranean and the Eastern European and Caucasian countries, the European Global Strategy (EUGS) aims to redefine the EU's mission in a highly complex and rapidly mutable international environment. The EUGS endeavours to profile a broader mission for the EU, elevating it from a regional to a global player while establishing more balanced relations with the external partners, whether they are states, communities, or people. While it is not yet clear how concretely the EU will operate to further the others' resilience-the key goal of the EUGS-it is thus clear that it will renounce to exert a structural influence. The EU will not frame the neighbours' policies, but it will help them instead, guided by a principled pragmatism, to enhance a reforming process domestically generated and crafted.