Deconstructing "Ideal Power Europe"

Reviews / Votes

In this excellent and highly engaging analysis of EU discourses on the Southern Mediterranean, Cebeci masterfully unsettles the comfortable self-appraisals of many EU scholars and practitioners. A sobering must-read for anyone interested in EU foreign policy and EU-Arab relations. -- Thomas Diez, University of Tueebingen At a time when the EU seems to be in search of its role and identity in general and vis-a-vis its neighbors in particular, Muenevver Cebeci offers a very timely and distinct analysis of the role of discourse in EU foreign policy. By providing a detailed post-structuralist interrogation of how the EU uses discourse and the depiction of itself as post-modern, post-sovereign and normative as tools to construct and reproduce an "ideal" self and an "inferior" and "imperfect" other, she sheds a much welcome light on the de facto legitimizing practices driving the EU's supposedly hegemonic ambitions in the space beyond its territorial borders. Drawing on Foucault's governmentality approach, this insightful study is a stark and much overdue reminder to all European Studies scholars and students alike to look beneath the surface of idealized and idealizing role concepts and EU foreign policy behavior. With this enlightening book, Cebeci puts herself at the forefront of the literature addressing the linkage between EU foreign policy, identity and sovereignty." -- Tobias Schumacher, European Neighbourhood Policy Chairholder, College of Europe, Natolin In this book Muenevver Cebeci offers a reading of current EU policy towards the Southern Mediterranean that is both critical and original. In contrast to the overwhelming majority of accounts in this field, the book provides a historically conscious account of the EU's current approach to its southern "neighborhood". Cebeci debunks a number of tacit assumptions and myths that cloud our understanding of the EU's foreign policy - its current orientation, its past record and its future prospects. As she also skilfully shows, these myths are not only perpetuated by the EU organizations itself; they are also the result of a vast scholarship, stuck in an idealized conception of the EU project. -- Peo Hansen, Linkoeping University In a world where Europe's influence is arguably more necessary than ever, Munevver Cebeci provides us with a precious counterpoint to the dominant analysis on EU foreign policy. The EU may think of itself as an "ideal power," in contrast in particular to its imperfect Arab neighbor, but such is not the secret for effectiveness in a post-colonial world. In the end, says Dr Cebeci, the EU will need to move from its narrow emphasis over security concerns and technocratic recipes to the more robust politics of democratic transformation in the region. -- Kalypso Nicolaidis, professor of international relations, University of Oxford