Europe's Geopolitical Position

The European Union occupies an unusual position among global actors: an economic power comparable in scale to the United States and China, organized through supranational institutions, but with foreign and security policy that remains largely subject to unanimous agreement among its member states. The Maastricht Treaty, which entered into force in 1993, created the EU's Common Foreign and Security Policy, later represented externally by a High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, a post held in recent years by figures such as Josep Borrell and, from December 2024, Kaja Kallas. Scholars such as Ian Manners have described the EU as a form of "normative power" that exercises influence chiefly through the promotion of rules, trade access, and values rather than military force, though the requirement for unanimity among 27 member states has often limited the speed and coherence of EU foreign policy in fast-moving crises.