The European Union and the Challenges of Multipolarity: DOI: http://dx.doi.org.10.18847/1.20.1

Abstract

This issue of the Journal of International Security Studies (RESI) addresses the challenges facing the European Union in the context of multipolarity. This situation arose after the collapse of the unipolar context (1989-2014), in which the United States - as a result of its many mistakes - lost its privileges, obtained after winning the Cold War at the end of the bipolar era (1945-1989). For the purposes of this introduction, we set 2014 as the beginning of the multipolar moment, although there is a great and necessary debate among academics in our field. There are two main arguments for the year 2014. First, the fact that former President Obama threatened former President Bashar al-Assad with military intervention in Syria if he used chemical weapons again and failed to do so: weakness. Second, Russia's annexation of Crimea in the same year. A key issue for Russia's national interest and therefore also for that of the United States. How to block it: weakness. The aim of this issue has therefore been to analyse the role of the European Union, or lack thereof, in the context of multipolarity. To this end, we have benefited greatly from the academic context that has been generated by the research project ‘Competition between great powers: multipolarity as reflected in regional scenarios’, which I have had the honour of directing and which has obtained funding from a competitive call of the Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED).