The role of European Union in world politics

Essay from the year 2011 in the subject Politics - International Politics - Topic: European Union, grade: 86, Liverpool John Moores University, course: International politics, language: English, abstract: It is widely agreed that the EU plays an increasingly important role in world politics. This essay will investigate to what extent is EU an actor in terms of its global economic, political and military role. It should be noted that these areas are not isolated and clearly separable. On the contrary, they are closely interrelated and often overlapping. The essay concludes that the EU has a significant role in world politics in economic and to a lesser extent in political terms, however in military terms, EU has not been able or willing to develop strong foreign policy. While EU's ability to translate its presence into actorness has been often criticised, it has nevertheless, assumed a leading role in many areas, such as development assistance, peacekeeping and environmental protection.