Title: EU actorness in a mirror: the war in Ukraine

Authors: Liliana Brožič

Addresses: Faculty of Government and European Studies, New University, Ljubljana, Slovenia

Abstract: The EU's objective, as clearly set out in the Strategic Compass for Security and Defence, is to be a global actor in a global world. How the EU actually pursues this objective is the focus of this paper. Being a global actor and having strategic autonomy is of paramount importance for the EU at a time when Ukraine is fighting for its territory occupied by Russia. A comparative analysis of EU activism was carried out between two time periods: from 2014, when Russia annexed Crimea, up to the military attack on Ukraine and after the military attack on Ukraine up to June 2023. The methodological approach used was that refined by Bretherton and Vogler; they tested the actorness of the EU using three criteria: presence, opportunity and capability. These were further tested and scored in the same way as Batzella - with a high, medium and low level of actorness scores for each criterion. The actorness of the EU in the field of the CSDP was assessed using these research methods. The central theme was whether the EU should seek a peaceful solution for Ukraine and how this would affect its actorness.

Keywords: European Union; global actorness; strategic autonomy; common security and defence policy; strategic compass for security and defence; military capability; war in Ukraine; Russia.

DOI: 10.1504/IJDIPE.2024.142558

International Journal of Diplomacy and Economy, 2024 Vol.10 No.2, pp.153 - 168

Received: 20 Sep 2023
Accepted: 08 Jan 2024
Published online: 08 Nov 2024 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article