ABSTRACT
The European Union’s (EU) enormous international power and frequent inability to wield it very effectively in the pursuit of European interests surely constitutes one of the most fascinating paradoxes of the ‘European project’. By its nature, the paradox invites lively debate and even describing it in this way may be contentious: it might be argued that the EU lacks ‘power’ in the hard sense of military or even diplomatic resources which it may deploy in pursuit of ‘European interests’, which are defined quite hazily when they may be defined at all. However, there is little doubt that the paradox, broadly defined, will bedevil the EU well into the twentyfirst century. As it enlarges its membership, the Union will become a macrocosm of progressively more diverse national interests. The creation of a single European currency, arguably the most audacious step in the history of European integration, threatens to accentuate the gap between the EU’s promise and performance as a global actor.
