The EU on the Road to Damascus: The War in Ukraine and the World Order in Transition

Abstract

The Russian invasion of Ukraine marks the point of no return of the transition of order in world politics. The first three sections of this article address the implication at the heart of this topic, that is, the reconfiguration of world coalitions at the initial stage of the transition phase. The next three sections analyse the impact of the Western coalition reconfiguration on the EU. Based on the analysis of CFSP texts published before the war in Ukraine and after the start of the war, the article assesses the consistency of the actions of EU countries with the position expressed by the EU texts. The objectives and interests of the EU institutions and member states’ governments are rarely perfectly homogeneous and normally not fully consistent with each other in the face of a serious external challenge. Sharing how to respond to the Russian invasion proves difficult because the implications of the invasion are broader than violating the sovereignty and territorial integrity of a non-EU European country. Many praise the level of unity achieved by the EU, but the conclusion of the present analysis shows that sharing strong Western coalition ties might represent a temporary undertaking of EU countries.

Keywords

• world order
• russian-ukrainian war
• eu foreign and security policy