The Normative Power Europe in the New “Great Game”: EU’s Three Dilemmas in Its Democracy Promotion Efforts in Central Asia
ZENG Xianghong
Viewing itself as a ‘Normative Power’, the European Union has always been endevouring to promote democracy in Central Asia and spreading its values such as freedom, human rights, good governance and rule of law. In order to assess the outcome of the EU＇s democracy pro- motion efforts in Central Asia, this paper constructs a framework covering both the EU as the ‘Self’ and the related actors in Central Asia as the ‘Others’. With regard to the EU ‘self’, this paper evaluates the normative performances of its actions. While as to the reactions from the ‘Others’, this paper first analyses the normative competition between the EU and the other great powers in Central Asia, and then appraises the normative responses from the Central Asian countries to the EU’s democracy agenda. In general, the EU’s effort to promote democracy in Central Asia has met strong challenges and its effects are rather limited. Viewing from the perspectives of normative performance, normative competition and normative resonance in relation to the EU’s democracy promotion efforts in Central Asia, the achievements of the EU are barely satisfactory. Under these circumstances, the EU has recognized that it should focus on the longer - term development of this area and shape the normative agendas of these countries in a gradual approach. The new strategy on Central Asia adopt by the EU in June 2019 reflects such an orientation of the EU.