EUR3418 The EU as a global actor in a changed security landscape

How to conceive of the EU as an actor in world politics? How do its sui generis characteristics affect its external action, and how is the latter influenced by global dynamics? Guided by these questions, this module examines the European Union's role as a subject of international relations against the backdrop of a rapidly changing global order. Considering the emergence of new security threats and drawing upon concepts and theories embedded mainly in International Relations and European Studies, it sheds light on the EU's external action architecture, its internal workings, and the actors involved. Putting EU objectives in relation to the on-going evolution of key instruments, the module provides a basis for discussing the extent to which the EU is equipped to tackle contemporary challenges and exert influence. To this end, the module discusses the most important areas of EU external action such as trade, development and humanitarian aid, democracy support, diplomacy, as well as security and defense. With a view to offer a better understanding of how the EU performs in these, particularly from the angle of coherence and effectiveness, the module zooms in on a range of concrete case studies, including the EU’s response to war and conflict in its neighbourhood, how the EU relates to other state and non-state actors and how it is perceived by them, the global rise of authoritarianism, and other existential threats.

The module is embedded in the broader scholarly and societal debate about the limits and potential of EU external action in an increasingly insecure and multipolar system, as well as about the ever more accentuated interplay of centrifugal and centripetal forces in the framework of European integration and how it affects EU actorness.