Real Strength Comes From the Inside
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A Constructivist Analysis of EU Actorness in the Context of UN Security Council Reform

Supervisor: Name: Jonas Hirschnitz
Claudia Engelmann Student ID: i6004017 j.hirschnitz@student.maastrichtuniversity.nl Pigeonhole: 336
Bachelor Paper I
Version: Final
Date: 22-July-2011 Word Count: 5,988

Structure:

Introduction p.3 1. Actorness - the Construtivist Dimension p.4 2. Capability in EU’s Foreign Policy p.6 2.1 Institutional Settings p.6 2.2 The EU at the UN(SC) p.7 2.3 Institutional Capability p.8 3. Approaching Presence p. 8 3.1 Normative Values Approach p.8 3.2 Normative Values in EU Policy p.9 4. Presence in the Context of UNSC Reform p.10
4.1 The Reform of the UNSC p.10
4.2 EU Member States’ Attitudes p. 11
4.3 Two Positions – One Identity? p.13

Conclusion p.16

Illustrations:
Table 1 p.11
Table 2 p.12

Introduction
“Intellectually and conceptually, the European Union and the United Nations are built on the same foundations. If this ground becomes shaky, both structures are in danger.”
(Fassbender, 2004, p.884)
Different scholars have found that Europe only has two decades left – at best – to have an important impact on global political developments (Mayer, 2008, p.64; Schnabel, 2005, p.75). Therefore, European political conduct in the domain of foreign policy finds itself in a decisive time. On the one hand, the Lisbon Treaty has just been adopted about one and a half years ago and was too contested to make further large-scale changes likely in the near future. On the other hand, it appears that especially now the EU needs coherent action to shape the environment according to