ABSTRACT
This chapter examines whether the European Union (EU) does indeed look, walk and talk as empires. The imperial paradigm puts power at the center of analysis and devotes a special attention to order, hierarchy and structure in international politics. It also focuses on the scope and structure of governance, the nature of borders, and narratives framing policies. The imperial paradigm does not differentiate between domestic and foreign affairs the way it is being done by the statist paradigm. Empires hardly ever possess fixed borders and they find it impractical to differentiate between external and internal policy. This explains why students of empires are more at ease explaining the cascading economic interdependence, transnational jurisdictions and multiple cultural loyalties than students of interstate politics and international organizations. The EU may well possess some basic features of empires, but it is certainly a rather peculiar empire. Control and domination exercised by empires can be economic, political, or military to various degrees.
