Europe: On The Verge Of Losing Its Civilian Identity?

After the geopolitical backdrop of the 1990s, the EU decided to equip itself with a new instrument - the CFSP. Up till then, the EU could only be a Civilian Power because it lacked military capability. However, this all changed with the introduction of the ESDP - the military arm of the CFSP. The aim of this book is to contribute to this debate by first discussing the concepts of civilian, normative and military power, then analysing the nature and structure of ESDP, and finally attempting to draw some conclusions on whether the ESDP has changed the fundamental civilian and normative capacity of the EU.