Beyond Orientalism and Occidentalism: Europe’s Normative Power

Abstract

The concept of Europe as a Normative Power (Ian Manners) stimulated a wide debate on the normative self-image of EU’s foreign policy. Thomas Diez problematised the construction of the self by changing others. This opens the debate for Edward Said’s Orientalism concept and Iver Neumann’s elaboration on the East in the self-formation of “Occidental” Europe. This panel concentrates on the secular bias of Europe’s current conception of the self. Europe defines itself as secular and tries to change others in that direction. The Enlightenment tradition is used for constructing Others in order to exclude them. The Arab Spring and Europe’s U-turn in supporting Islamist democrats showed that this approach is not sustainable but also shed a light on the difficult situation of Christian minorities in parts of the Arab world. The Mediterranean region cannot be integrated into a wider Europe without taking religion seriously. This also applies to Orthodox Christianity with its different concept on the relation of religion and politics within the EU as well as in its neighborhood. The Balkans have more to contribute to Europe’s self than unrest and strife. The legacy of the Eastern Roman Empire links the Orthodox Christianity to the issue of a Turkish entry to the EU given the heritage of Byzantium/Constantinople/Istanbul and to Russia’s self-construction as a Third Rome. The importance of the tradition of Judaism is obvious, for instance in Joseph Weiler’s path-breaking contribution to religion in Europe’s self-construction. The panel brings papers together that make a contribution to the Normative Power debate in the perspective of a wider Europe that takes religious traditions of Europe and its neighborhood seriously. The too often overlooked Orthodox Christian perspective on religion and politics is awarded a particularly prominent space.

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