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On 12 October 2012, the European Union was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for, among
other things, “the successful struggle for peace and reconciliation and for democracy
and human rights,” as the official press release states.
The Nobel Prize organization’s explanatory statement matches the EU’s traditional selfimage
as a “civilian power” not only in European affairs but also in its foreign relations.
However, when applied to the EU’s policy towards the countries south of the Mediterranean,
the civilian power approach exhibits many problems.
The Arab Spring has repoliticized cross-Mediterranean relations. In the 1970s, the
EU based its self-image as an actor in international relations on a civilian power approach.
The aspirations of an ideal civilian power are based on the promotion of
nonviolent conflict resolution, democratic values and social justice. Yet in the decade
prior to the Arab Spring at the latest, the EU’s approach towards the Arab
world had become very “pragmatic,” meaning that European claims regarding the
EU’s progressive foreign policy were purely rhetorical.
Still, a heated, partially ideologically charged debate among scholars – and politicians
– on the EU’s self-image continued. The main reason the approach managed
to remain on the agenda, despite empirical counterevidence, was that the pre-Arab
Spring environment, with its authoritarian regimes, was hostile to a civilian power.
With the Arab Spring, a quasi-experimental situation has emerged; whether the European
self-image matches the reality thus needs to be tested. Since the Arab Spring
it has certainly become more common for European politicians to use major elements
of the civilian power approach on the rhetorical level.
When compared with major empirical developments since the Arab Spring, the civilian
power approach does not adequately explain European relations with the
countries south of the Mediterranean.
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