Seminar paper from the year 2020 in the subject Politics - International Politics - Topic: European Union, grade: 2,0, University of Ghent, language: English, abstract: This article analyses the extent to which the European Union (EU) constitutes a normative power in its response on the Syrian Conflict. Normative power Europe is examined along principles, actions and impact. The empirical analysis focuses on two norms: democracy and human rights. According to analysis, taken measures by the EU have been moderate and less influential on the national level while the value promotion on the reginal level could prove its normative power. For several decades EU foreign policy analysis is concerned with the question of European Union (EU) actorness and the role of EU in international politics. Analysts are talking of the EU as a Military Power, Civilian Power, Soft Power or Cultural Power. General discussion of conceptual frameworks of the Normative Power Europe has become immensely popular in the EU studies and has provoked substantial debate. At the same time, the EU has been experiencing a dramatic change in its direct neighborhood. Syrian Arab Republic, the country located in the heart of Middle East, turned into a new hybrid war and the region was overwhelmed with one of the worst humanitarian crises the world has faced in the 21st century. About 5.6 million Syrians are recent refugees in neighboring countries, 11.7 million Syrians are in need of humanitarian assistance internally and over 560.000 became victims of the Syrian war. The extent and continuation of the conflict also has a destabilizing impact and turned the neighborhood into a “ring of fire”. The displacement of people, the exacerbation of political and sectarian differences and the spread of terrorism are forming a new threat to the democratic institution of the EU.

Democracy, which protects freedom and citizens' rights more than any other regime, is in crisis today. In recent years, it has become exhausted in its European center and along its periphery. Citizen trust of the European Union's democratic institutions has been fading. The EU's "normative power" -- its ability to spread its norms and values to other states -- and its "soft power" -- its ability to attract others to its point of view -- are now seen as less likely to achieve the expected goals of spreading democracy within EU countries and creating a ring of well-governed states in neighboring countries. Democracy and its institutions need to adapt to these new challenges. Respected authors and experts offer fresh and creative answers to the challenges of democracy in the European Union and its neighboring countries by offering a transatlantic perspective.

The notion of Normative Power Europe (NPE) is that the EU is an 'ideational' actor characterised by common principles and acting to diffuse norms within international relations. Contributors assess the impact of NPE and offer new perspectives for the future exploration of one of the most widely used ideas in the study of the EU in the last decade.

The war in Syria, now in its eighth year, continues to take its toll on the Syrian people. More than half of the population of Syria remains displaced; 5.6 million persons are registered as refugees outside of the country and another 6.2 million are displaced within Syria's borders. The internally displaced persons include 2 million school-age children; of these, less than half attend school. Another 739,000 Syrian children are out of school in the five neighborhood countries that host Syria's refugees. The loss of human capital is staggering, and it will create permanent hardships for generations of Syrians going forward. Despite the tragic prospects for renewed fighting in certain parts of the country, an overall reduction in armed conflict is possible going forward. However, international experience shows that the absence of fighting is rarely a singular trigger for the return of displaced people. Numerous other factors—including improved security and socioeconomic conditions in origin states, access to property and assets, the availability of key services, and restitution in home areas—play important roles in shaping the scale and composition of the returns. Overall, refugees have their own calculus of return that considers all of these factors and assesses available options. The Mobility of Displaced Syrians: An Economic and Social Analysis sheds light on the 'mobility calculus' of Syrian refugees. While dismissing any policies that imply wrongful practices involving forced repatriation, the study analyzes factors that may be considered by refugees in their own decisions to relocate. It provides a conceptual framework, supported by data and analysis, to facilitate an impartial conversation about refugees and their mobility choices. It also explores the diversified policy toolkit that the international community has available—and the most effective ways in which the toolkit can be adapted—to maximize the well-being of refugees, host countries, and the people in Syria.

This book develops the idea that since decolonisation, regional patterns of security have become more prominent in international politics. The authors combine an operational theory of regional security with an empirical application across the whole of the international system. Individual chapters cover Africa, the Balkans, CIS Europe, East Asia, EU Europe, the Middle East, North America, South America, and South Asia. The main focus is on the post-Cold War period, but the history of each regional security complex is traced back to its beginnings. By relating the regional dynamics of security to current debates about the global power structure, the authors unfold a distinctive interpretation of post-Cold War international security, avoiding both the extreme oversimplifications of the unipolar view, and the extreme deterritorialisations of many globalist visions of a new world disorder. Their framework brings out the radical diversity of security dynamics in different parts of the world.

This edited volume brings together some of the most important scholarly perspectives – in the form of both journal article reprints and original contributions – on the structure and dynamics of the EU’s multi-layered relations with its Eastern neighbours within the Eastern Partnership (EaP) framework and beyond. In May 2019, the EU’s EaP – an ambitious and sophisticated policy framework, conjoining elements of cooperation and integration, with the EU’s six eastern neighbours, i.e. Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan – turned ten years. This anniversary, in conjunction with repeatedly voiced critique by scholars and policy-makers alike regarding the framework’s effectiveness and utility, led the EU to submit the EaP to a fundamental auditing and revision. Structured around both enduring and emerging issues in the broader EU-Eastern neighbourhood framework, this book provides a retrospective analysis of key structural and relational challenges, unfolding regional dynamics, distinctive forms of bilateral/multilateral engagement, whilst also offering a critical perspective on the contested future relations between the EU and its Eastern neighbours. Looking backwards and providing a critical and thorough assessment of the first ten years of the EaP in practice, this book thinks forward and gauges its many potential future avenues. This comes at a crucial moment, as the EU and its six Eastern neighbours are in search of new and mutually acceptable forms of association.

"The study of grand strategy has historically been confined to a few great powers--preponderantly, the United States, China, and Russia. In contrast, this volume introduces readers to the novel field of “comparative grand strategy.” Its co-editors offer a framework that expands the analysis beyond a traditional rationalist approach to incorporate significant cultural factors that influence strategists as they prioritize threats and opportunities in the global system. This framework then combines these factors with domestic political influences often understated or overlooked in the international relations literature. It considers both how grand strategy is actually formulated and the varied instruments used to implement it. Applying this framework, the volume's remaining contributors then examine how grand strategy is conceived, formulated, and implemented by ten states. These consist of the United Nations G5 members and five other states “pivotal” to global or regional economic development and security. This group is composed of Brazil and India--two regional powers operating in very different security environments--and Iran, Israel, and Saudi Arabia, who confront each other in a truly existential conflict. Departing from a state-based analysis, an eleventh case study examines the European Union--an organization that lacks many of the trappings of a conventional state but which is able to call upon more resources than most. The volume's concluding chapter points to both the theoretical and empirical areas of convergence and divergence highlighted by these chapters, and the prospective questions for future analysis in the emergent field of comparative grand strategy" (ed.).