The course of world politics is determined by the interaction between great powers. Those powers are the US, the established power; Russia, the declining power; China, the rising power; and the EU, the power that doesn’t know whether it wants to be a power. If the EU does not just want to submit to the policies of the other powers it will have to become one itself, but it should differ in its strategy. In his newly published book titled European Strategy in the 21st Century: New Future for Old Power, Prof. Biscop argues that the EU has the means to pursue a distinctive great power strategy, a middle way between dreamy idealism and unprincipled pragmatism, and can play a crucial stabilizing role in this increasingly unstable world. Europe, through the European Union, should act as a great power in the 21st century.

This lecture is a Robert Schuman Initiative event, funded by the Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence at the University of Luxembourg and the EU Commission.