ABSTRACT
The extent to which the EU is or ever will be a strategic actor depends to no small degree on what the strategic arena looks like, whether it is an economic, cultural or political arena. It also depends on what the primary strategic issues are considered to be; trade, human rights, anti-terrorism, peacekeeping or democracy. The politico-cultural arena, where the dissemination of the more tacit norms of democratic life is found, is probably the most evasive of all strategic arenas. In addition, the advance of democracy is probably the most difficult of all issues to measure with any degree of certainty.
