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Challenges and opportunities provided by the Ukraine crisis for the EU as an international actor : a study on EU actorness

Skwara, Steffen (2015) Challenges and opportunities provided by the Ukraine crisis for the EU as an international actor : a study on EU actorness.

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Abstract:The European Union (EU) is currently situated at a crossroad in its foreign policy actorness. While the Union aspires to play a greater global role, its actorness and effectiveness cannot be taken for granted given its nature as a multilevel actor, consisting of 28 Member States with diverse foreign policy preferences and positions. Even though the external policy capacity of the EU has been increased by institutional innovations and by the Union‟s increased involvement in international issues (Edwards, 2013, pp. 280-283); there are a lot of factors that cast doubt on the effectiveness of the EU‟s external policy actorness. An example for this would be the internal reforms which are often regarded as slow as well as modest and also a less favorable external environment, with the United States shifting its focus to the Asia-Pacific region (Campbell/Andrews, 2013, p. 4). The management of the sovereign debt crises in the Eurozone was another complicating factor, which both consumed the energies of policymakers internally and generated perceptions of disunity and incompetence externally (Niemann/Bretherton, 2013, p. 262). These challenges for EU external policy make an improved understanding of EU external policy actorness all the more pressing. To gain a better understanding of the Union's external policy actorness this paper will analyze the Ukraine crisis as a case study and try to evaluate the challenges this crisis is posing for the EU actorness as well as which opportunities are opening up for the EU to evolve and increase its influence as an international actor.
Item Type:Essay (Bachelor)
Faculty:BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences
Subject:88 social and public administration, 89 political science
Programme:Management Society and Technology BSc (56654)
Link to this item:https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/68983
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