From Narrative to Policy: The Role of the EU Institutions in Building of the European Strategic Autonomy

European Strategic Autonomy (ESA) became a highly influential concept guiding policy-making practice of the European Union, with the view to strengthen its international actorness. This article contributes to recent research on ESA that is rooted in constructivism and discursive institutionalism. It approaches ESA as an idea that is shaped through ideational power, reproduced through narrative practice and implemented through policy-making effort. It focuses on the role of the institutions of the European Union in the process of conceptualizing and implementing ESA in the EU. It claims that EU institutions have been instrumental to the move from narrative on ESA to policy-making of ESA. It argues that initiatives undertaken by the EU to build its strategic autonomy usually fall under four main categories: strengthening EU’s own strategic capacity, reducing EU’s strategic vulnerabilities, building EU’s situational awareness and strategic partnering with other actors. These four types of action constitute an analytical model elaborated in this article, that is meant to help answer a general question: how does a polity define its strategic autonomy?