Reinforcing EU’s Actorness? A Look at EU’s Reshaping of Security

This chapter analyzes European Union (EU) actorness through a security perspective, seeking to unpack the processes that are leading to the reconceptualization of European security and the redesigning of the EU in this newly transformed context. The shift from the normative actor, very much enshrining the constitutive values of the EU, to highlighting the more geopolitical approach currently pursued by the so-called “geopolitical Commission,” needs to be addressed. This shift brings with it concepts such as those of principled pragmatism and resilience, along with bordering and debordering dynamics with clear security implications for what these dynamics mean, whom they are targeting, and how change is envisioned. The EU’s self-definition as a security actor and norms promoter in the contested international order is therefore topical. This chapter conceptualizes the EU’s security actorness, looking at how the war in Ukraine since 2014 and the Russian full-scale invasion on February 24, 2022, have been contributing to the reconceptualization of security in the EU and the wider European context and at which have been its implications for both EU’s normative and strategic positioning, and the process of redefinition of European security.