The Russia-Ukraine war forced the EU to speak the language of power, but it didn’t turn the EU into a state. In a new post on the Loop blog, Veronica Anghel argues that EU geopolitics looks different: dense ties, not just hard power. Enlargement is the EU’s prime relational technology – binding security to markets, institutions, and publics.
The piece explores the EU’s geopolitics, arguing that it is best understood as relational, in which “Power is exercised through bespoke relationships that entangle law, finance, infrastructure, and public legitimacy across borders.” According to Veronica Anghel, “Enlargement is a way to bind the EU and select third parties into webs of rules and mutual obligations that change them and the EU at the same time.” In the post, she examines how this works in practice.
Photo: European Parliament from EU, CC BY 2.0 / Wikimedia Commons
