The European Union in a New Emerging Global Order

The European Union (EU) is a very specific sui generis entity in the international arena as it neither a classical international organisation nor state. Moreover, the process of its creation remains incomplete, with the original vision of establishing a novel, supranational entity on the continent still not fully realised. What is more, European integration and the EU has recently met many challenges and obstacles of different kinds, both internal (a potential Grexit, a very real Brexit, an axiological clash of the elites, and democratic deficit) and external (e.g., conflicts on its borders, the resurgence of hard power to the international scene, the so-called “Trump factor”, etc.). This article seeks to examine and specify the current global position of the EU in this new, turbulent era marked by partial de-globalisation, the dominance of hard power, and great-power competition in the world. This era is defined in this essay as a “strategic draft”, during which Russia seems intent on dismantling the international order, while China looks to establish an entirely new one. These are challenging times, as the old order no longer functions properly, while the new one is yet to take shape.