EU, War in Ukraine, and the World Order in Transition

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has implications on the world order and the reconfiguration of world coalitions. The paper analyses how they impact on the EU foreign policy. 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 serious external threats. The paper assesses the consistency of the EU’s view on the world order through the analysis of CFSP texts published before the war in Ukraine and after the start of the war. 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. Based on complex systems theory, the present analysis shows that the imperative of sharing strong Western coalition ties is a turning point of the EU foreign policy.