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CIAO DATE: 03/02
The 'Difference Engine': Constructing and Representing the International Identity of the European Union
Ian Manners
Copenhagen Peace Research Institute
December 2001
Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to more fully develop the notion of the international identity of the EU previously suggested by Richard Whitman and myself. I will attempt to balance our previous focus on the 'active dimension' of the EU's attempts to 'assert its identity on the international scene' by looking at the 'reflexive dimension' of the EU's international identity from a more sociological perspective. This paper will argue that the distinctive polity perspectives and role representations of the EU can be thought of as a form of 'difference engine' which drives the construction and representation of the EU's international identity. Like Babbage's original difference engine, the EU's international identity is not a multiplier of difference, exaggerating the dissimilarities between the EU and the rest of the world through the generation of a new European supranational identity, but functions solely on the basis of addition — by adding an EU element to Europeans' complex and multifaceted identities.
This paper builds on a contribution to the Journal of European Integration in which Richard Whitman and myself took a first step towards identifying the international identity of the European Union (EU) through an examination of its 'active identity'. We admitted that the notion of active identity was but one element of a 'complex and multifaceted international identity' rather than the totality of the EU's international role (Manners and Whitman, 1998: 238). The purpose of this paper is to build on that foundation, and the conceptualisation that it introduced, in order to more fully develop the notion of the international identity of the EU. In particular I will attempt to balance our previous focus on the 'active dimension' of the EU's attempts to 'assert its identity on the international scene' by looking at the 'reflexive dimension' of the EU's international identity from a more sociological perspective.
This paper will argue that the distinctive polity perspectives and role representations of the EU can be thought of as a form of 'difference engine' which drives the construction and representation of the EU in such a way as to introduce and encourage differences which might be characterised as the EU's international identity. Like Babbage's original difference engine, the EU's international identity is not a multiplier of difference, exaggerating the dissimilarities between the EU and the rest of the world through the generation of a new European supranational identity. Instead I will argue that, like Babbage's calculator, the international identity functions solely on the basis of addition — by adding an EU element to Europeans' complex and multifaceted identities.
This paper will proceed in five steps to revisit, criticise, constitute, theorise, and conclude its reflections on the construction and representation of the international identity of the EU. What I hope I am able to suggest is that the conceptualisation and analysis of the EU requires a series of artificial dualities to be appreciated which break down many disciplinary barriers. The first duality is the differentiation between the more positivistic political science approaches to the EU as an instrumental actor solely motivated by material concerns (or those of its constituent parts) and the more interpretative sociological approaches to the EU as a sentient actor solely motivated by symbolic concerns (such as the reinforcement of social group identities). By focussing previously on active identity, and now on reflexive identity, I hope to bring some sort of dynamic balance to the study of the EU and the way in which its international activism and identity construction are both part of coming 'to terms with the complex processes and interactions through which the EU is 'being' or 'becoming' determined by both similarities and differences among its multiple identities and others' (Manners, 2000: 29).
The second duality is the differentiation between the analytical perspectives of the EU as a political entity, political system, or polity and the role analyses of the EU as a civilian power, military power, or normative power. By focussing on the mutual constitution of both the polity perspectives and the role representations of the EU I hope to be able to argue that the way in which the EU is constitutionally constructed is shaped by the way in which the EU's international role is constructed which is shaped by the way in which the EU is constitutionally constructed, ad infinitum. The third duality is the differentiation between the so-called conventional explanations of the EU provided by political theories and the so-called unconventional explanations of the EU provided by social theory. I conclude the paper by arguing that only by using both political and social theories will be able to come to terms with the way in which the EU is a difference engine which requires that we add its international identity into our calculations of the EU in global politics. But first, I will revisit the international identity of the EU in order to reflect on its diffusion over the past five years.
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