ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to contribute to the debate by empirically assessing the effect of military means on the character of the EU's foreign policy. The actual employment by the EU of military capabilities has sparked a renewed debate on the character of the EU's international actorness. Whereas some argue that the EU has lost its distinctiveness in international affairs, others argue exactly the opposite, maintaining that a full spectrum of instruments allows the EU to actually act as a normative power that upholds its value-based character. It seeks to contribute to both fields in two ways: first, by conducting an informed theoretical study of an EU military operation; and second, by empirically assessing the validity of the normative power argument. Moreover, in order to examine the extent of change in the EU's foreign involvement. The chapter considers the EU's military operation within the broader context of the EU's overall foreign policy regarding FYR Macedonia.
