Europe’s engagement with R2P in a transitional international order

This chapter explores the EU’s engagement with the R2P principle and considers whether this can form an important aspect of its external engagement, including its international normative role. Our analysis focuses on two layers of concurrent normative contestation which problematize the EU’s role in this area: first, at the global level, and second, internally within the EU. In the first section, we introduce the theoretical context of global normative contestation around issues such as R2P, often associated with liberal, Western values. We set this against the background of the “normative power Europe” debate in international perspective in order to assess the EU’s role in promoting R2P globally, at a time when many argue that the EU’s normative authority is in decline and rising powers are increasingly resisting aspects of the liberal international order. The second section focuses on internal normative contestation processes taking place within the EU. Despite support for R2P among key European states, the collective internalization of R2P in Europe has been slow. The third section explores the EU’s potential to take a meaningful leadership role on R2P, despite the challenges identified within each of the two layers of contestation. We explore whether there is potential for the EU to speak with one voice on R2P-related issues, further to the 2013 European Parliament’s call for consensus. As a test, the response of the EU to the contemporary refugee “crisis” does not augur well either for European collective action around R2P, or in terms of normative credibility in global perspective. To conclude it asks: can the latest attempt of the EU to marshal a collective European response to the R2P initiative – after a decade of ambivalence – be successful, and what are the implications of this for the EU’s normative leadership globally?