TY - JOUR
T1 - ‘Normative power Europe’ meets economic liberalism
T2 - Complicating cosmopolitanism inside/outside the EU
AU - Rosamond, Ben
AU - Parker, Owen
PY - 2013/6
Y1 - 2013/6
N2 - This article offers a reading of 'normative power Europe' (NPE) suggesting that the concept has been used for two distinct purposes: as a distinctive ontological characterisation of the EU, on the one hand, and as a critical approach to the study of the EU and its external projection, on the other. These positions are labelled 'NPE ontological reality' (NPE-OR) and 'NPE critical ontology' (NPE-CO), respectively, and this article sets out to show how they might work together in practice, even if they are incommensurable in theory. It is argued that NPE's ethico-political value resides in the extent that it embodies an ontologically plural reality, never entirely defined. By drawing attention to a blind-spot in the NPE position - the constitutive importance of economic liberalism ('market cosmopolitanism') to the EU's post-Westphalian character - attention is drawn to the normative basis of market cosmopolitanism and its connections to NPE-OR are described. It is argued that, from an NPE-CO perspective, we should exercise caution in celebrating NPE-OR as post-Westphalian reality to the extent that it is rooted in a market cosmopolitics.
AB - This article offers a reading of 'normative power Europe' (NPE) suggesting that the concept has been used for two distinct purposes: as a distinctive ontological characterisation of the EU, on the one hand, and as a critical approach to the study of the EU and its external projection, on the other. These positions are labelled 'NPE ontological reality' (NPE-OR) and 'NPE critical ontology' (NPE-CO), respectively, and this article sets out to show how they might work together in practice, even if they are incommensurable in theory. It is argued that NPE's ethico-political value resides in the extent that it embodies an ontologically plural reality, never entirely defined. By drawing attention to a blind-spot in the NPE position - the constitutive importance of economic liberalism ('market cosmopolitanism') to the EU's post-Westphalian character - attention is drawn to the normative basis of market cosmopolitanism and its connections to NPE-OR are described. It is argued that, from an NPE-CO perspective, we should exercise caution in celebrating NPE-OR as post-Westphalian reality to the extent that it is rooted in a market cosmopolitics.
U2 - 10.1177/0010836713485388
DO - 10.1177/0010836713485388
M3 - Journal article
SN - 0010-8367
VL - 48
SP - 229
EP - 246
JO - Cooperation and Conflict
JF - Cooperation and Conflict
IS - 2
ER -