Excellent summary of the EU's failure to build a joint foreign policy.
Yet the reason for the failure is not illusions about power. It is the power of capitals. National views and interests diverge widely.
Yet the reason for the failure is not illusions about power. It is the power of capitals. National views and interests diverge widely.
No player -- not Brussels, not Paris, not Berlin -- is powerful enough to unite Europe behind a specific foreign policy agenda.
In the past, it was the US, with its overwhelming power and key global role that was leading on foreign policy (or sometimes dividing).
In the past, it was the US, with its overwhelming power and key global role that was leading on foreign policy (or sometimes dividing).
Yet in a union of equals (in status), nobody can take on the role of the US. What you have is a number of players that in the best case agree on a joint agenda. In many cases this amounts to the lowest common denominator.
European mid-sized powers will continue to have their own foreign policies, based on their views and interests. They will continue to coordinate with peers where possible. But it will remain a case-by-case coordination.
To improve this cooperation, a European Security Council might be useful.
And countries with similar views and interests should do more on a minilateral basis, pursue joint projects, and try to bring as many others on board.
And countries with similar views and interests should do more on a minilateral basis, pursue joint projects, and try to bring as many others on board.
But to expect a centralized homogenous European foreign policy to take over from the capitals is profoundly unrealistic. To pursue this pipe dream may even by counter-productive, as it sucks up energies, instead of focussing minds on improving what exists.
The EU foreign policy structures that have been set up are certainly helpful in the effort to coordinate national foreign policies. This is what Brussels should focus on: improve coordination by offering a platform to build and align strategies.
And there is the geo-economic role of the Commission: with its own resources, and by being in charge of the huge single market, the Commission can help the capitals to use market power in order to reinforce and support joint global goals (especially vis-à-vis China).
