'Civilian Power' or Something Else? The European Union on its way beyond 'Civilian Power'

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The European Union?s (EU) external appearance is often described as a ?civilian power? (CP). However, due to increasing military capabilities and coercive approaches in international politics, it apparently moves towards a ?harder? kind of power. Applying a role-theoretical approach, the study explores what kind of power the EU actually constitutes and thus studies whether the EU?s characterization as a CP is still empirically valid. In order to do so, the work takes into account two parts of a role-conception: the self-perception of the EU and the view of how the non-EU ?others? perceive it. Hereby, the Union?s self-perception is investigated by means of qualitative text-analysis of central EU-documents. The perception of ?others? is studied with the aid of a self-conducted expert-survey. The result of this approach is ambivalent. The EU still constructs itself as a CP, but is aware of the increasingly use of coercive and military means. The perception ?from outside? reflects the EU?s harder approaches in the international arena, but clearly does not perceive it as a predominately military actor. Thus, the la...