“Strengthening Europe’s influence in global politics will be one of the most difficult tasks for the new EU leaders. Rules-based policy and geopolitics fit together as well as water and fire. The EU has historically focused on rulemaking,” Kristi Raik, director of the Estonian Foreign Policy Institute writes in an opinion article in the Estonian daily Postimees on 21 August.
Raik notes that in realistic geopolitics things are determined by force, especially military power – rules are of secondary importance. “The EU has succeeded in putting an end to the use of force between its member states in pursuit of its rules-based policy, but of course, power-based geopolitics have never disappeared in international relations,” she writes.
Read the full article in Estonian in Postimees.