Analysis of the EU in the context of the European neighbourhood policy: regional or global leadership in peace and security

This paper examines the European Union’s prospect to exert influence in the domain of peace and security within the ambit of its neighbourhood in the context of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP). The analysis is conducted at two levels. First a canvas of three determinants of regional leadership (willingness, capacity and legitimacy) are delimited. Secondly these factors, to which regional leadership is a function, are applied to the European Union in the area of peace and security at the global stage. Subsequently, the analysis focuses on the regional context dealing with the sixteen countries that are covered by the ENP. The discussions are further fine tuned through the presentation of a case study discussing the territorial dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh from the point of view of the EU. The author notes that while there seems to be acceptable levels of legitimacy of EU actions in the area of peace and security in its neighbourhood there is also a mismatch as between willingness expressed in EU policies and hard power capacity to realize declared goals.