ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the origins and backgrounds of the European project in terms of its relationship to military power prior to the formal establishment of the European Union's (EU's) Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP). Its selection of myths is based on Ian Manners's article Global Europa: Mythology of the European Union in World Politics. The chapter argues that while the prevailing Western political discourse on military enforcement has gradually been transformed into the domain of the unspeakable. While the myth of Europe as a Project for Peace rests on the mental rejection of some European practices and on persuasive arguments for peace, post Second World War Europe also had other and competing ways to proceed. Most important of these was the Third Force myth about early Cold War attempts to construct Europe as an independent security player in the world. The Civilian Power myth presents a more liberal and progressive understanding of the merits of economic interdependence over military power-based conflict.
