The EU and its Eastern Neighbours: why 'othering' matters

The EU increasingly envisages itself as a ‘credible force for good’ (Solana 2007) in international relations. Despite its modest appearance, this is an expressly profound ambition, which intends to embrace the fundamentals of a ‘lasting power’, an ‘understanding of good’, and ‘credibility’ under the umbrella of a single but polycentric player. This vision, in its various incarnations – from civilian, transformative, normative, ethical, and responsible Europe – has been legitimated, writ large, in both scholarly and EU policy-making circles. Yet, this has been done either retrospectively, referring to the EU’s exceptionalism in terms of its to-date accomplishments and its ‘particular historical evolution’ (Manners 2002: 252); or more so, introspectively, based on the EU’s ‘authority, resources, and capacity to govern’ (Friis and Murphy 1999:214). The world order, however, has altered to become more interdependent and even interpolar (Howorth 2010; Grevi 2009); and with it, the hegemonic appeal of traditional powers can no longer be taken for granted (Linklater 2011). It is therefore surprising how little attention hitherto has been paid to understanding or indeed imagining the EU not only through the lens of its self-perception, tainted by its past colonial overtones of a ‘superior Self’ on a crusading mission to civilise the world. What is still amiss, is the EU’s perceptive awareness of the relational importance of the outside in its construction of a legitimate and credible Self, whereby the authority to govern is no longer a given, but rather earned through mobilisation and electioneering, to ensure allegiances from its counterparts, in a competitive and interpolar world.