ABSTRACT
This chapter approaches the issue of European Union’s (EU) actorness in international affairs by way of a theoretically informed discussion pertaining to three potential role-sets for the EU in the international arena. In correspondence with Kjell Engelbrekt’s analysis in Chapter 1, the author contends that the Union cannot live up to a Machiavellian definition of a strategic actor. However, the issue about the EU as an actor in the global arena is indeed a complex one that demands a multidimensional answer. Therefore, three possible roles are applied in order to highlight different features of the EU as an international actor. The analysis assesses whether or not the EU should be comprehended as a passive pole, as a re-actor or as a global strategic actor.
