The EU’s civilian/power dilemma

This article exposes the dilemma between the EU's civilian geopolitical model and its role as a dominant geoeconomic power. While the success of the European model for political-economic organisation and for overcoming war is appealing, the EU's external relations frequently fail to avoid the traps of Europe's imperial past (and present), thus undermining the EU's credibility and legitimacy in international development policy. This article therefore argues for a critical engagement with views on the EU from the outside. It draws on qualitative fieldwork on EU development policy in East Africa and illustrates how such external perceptions sometimes differ considerably from dominant European ones articulated in official EU geopolitical discourse.