Leiden University Student Repository

Zandee, Bart-Jan (2022)

Enter Geopolitics: Changing Rhetoric on Europe's International Role Between 2011 and 2021

Bachelor thesis | International Studies (BA)

How can we understand the EU as a foreign policy actor? The research presented here aims to answer this old, but increasingly relevant, question by applying a narrative analysis. This analysis based on texts by the European Commission and European Parliament provides insights into how the EU constructs its own position in the international arena. Most importantly, the research establishes that both institutions are increasingly constructing the EU as a powerful, interest-driven, actor which should aim to develop capabilities similar to those of its constituent nation-states. Thereby, calls for a more 'geopolitical' EU are moved alongside the value-driven approach that was still dominant little over a decade ago.

European Union

Europe

EU foreign policy

discourse analysis

narrative

EUGS

European Commission

foreign policy role

Author

Zandee, Bart-Jan

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Specialisation

Europe

Supervisors

Tazelaar, R.S.

ECTS Credits

15

Language

en