What Has Nonviolence Got To Do With The EU?

Nonviolence has an established tradition in several disciplines, including political theory, international relations and political science. But its potential for the European Union (EU) has not been appraised yet. Thus, we set out to explore nonviolence as an analytical and normative framework for the study of the EU. At the outset, we introduce nonviolence and define our approach to this concept. We then apply our analytical and normative framework to three critical issues concerning the nature of EU power, the democratic deficit and the narrative of integration. We find that nonviolence re‐defines the core dimensions of power and democracy, and imagines the EU in non‐state‐morphic ways, situating praxis at the roots of the integration process and its narrative