What are the ethics that should guide the European Union’s policies in world politics?Article by Ian Manners published in the journal International Affairs, January 2008The European Union has been, is and always will be a normative power in world politics. This is a strong claim with a critical aim; to promote normative approaches to the study of the EU. In arguing that the EU is a normative power in world politics, I mean that the EU promotes a series of normative principles that are generally acknowledged, within the United Nations system, to be universally applicable. The article first considers the creative efforts of the EU’s ‘normative power’ in conceptual terms. It then looks at the nine substantive normative principles the EU promotes in world politics: sustainable peace, social freedom, consensual democracy, associative human rights, supranational rule of law, inclusive equality, social solidarity, sustainable development, and good governance. The article turns to discuss how to judge the EU’s principles, actions and impact by using three major approaches to procedural normative ethics: virtue ethics, deontological ethics, and consequentialist ethics. The article concludes by arguing that we must judge the EU’s creative efforts to promote a more just, cosmopolitical world in terms of its principles, actions and impact, although these may differ. These three approaches provide the EU with maxims which should shape the EU’s normative power in world politics: ‘live by example’; ‘be reasonable’; and ‘do least harm’. Ian Manners The normative ethics of the European Union, full text (pdf, 203 KB) |
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