Europe Anti-Power e-bog

The EU seeks to define a role for itself in power politics while remaining firm in its rejection of power politics. In order to make power compatible with the European project, EU debate has appended a number of progressive adjectives to the word "e;power,"e; adjectives like "e;civilian"e; and "e;normative,"e; among others. This book asks what is power, such that it can be modified, tamed, and modulated by adjectives, yet remain "e;powerful"e;? Loriaux passes EU debate on power through the mill of phenomenological and post-phenomenological analysis, juxtaposing it against writings by Machiavelli, Agamben, Thucydides, Nietzsche, Patocka, and Levinas. The book locates power in "e;power/play,"e; the theatrical, staged representation of threat that generates aesthetic effect and undecidability. Power/play endows the word "e;power"e; with perlocutionary force, which the adjectives of EU "e;qualified"e; power actually enhance rather than moderate. Loriaux argues that EU discourse on power therefore risks inviting EU "e;exceptionalism,"e; or risks lapsing into an expression of EU ressentiment, rather than advancing a new, progressive understanding of "e;power."e; If European Union is to remain steadfast in its opposition to power politics, it must represent itself as "e;anti-power."e; This book will be of interest to those who work in the area of EU foreign policy, as well as to those who have a more general theoretical interest in the concept of power.