This paper focuses on the identity of the European Union. The current tectonic changes under way in the World’s geopolitical order are deeply challenging to the raison d’être of the Union, caught between its status of leading (geo)economic power, and its weakness as an international political actor. The reality of the geopolitical competition among great powers for the control of the material and immaterial “spheres of power” is clearly based not solely on the prerequisite of economic strength and leadership in the global economic space, but also on aspects linked to “size”. The EU has the dimensions of a “Continental Empire” (as all the current great powers are) but lacks the consciousness of being potentially a geopolitical leader able to stand as an equal amidst other leaders. This “imperial” vocation is however impeded by a number of cultural, institutional and political obstacles that would have to be urgently removed for the EU to be able to play the role of a geopolitical pivot in the near future.
Die vorliegende Publikation ist vom Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF) im Rahmen des Projekts "Re-Konstruktionen" gefördert.
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