COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THEORETICAL APPROACHES TO THE EUROPEAN UNION'S “SOFT POWER” WITH OTHER CONCEPTUAL IDEAS

Abstract

The article provides an analysis of theoretical views and conceptions of EU “soft power” in comparison with some other ideas. The main question is – how the European Union itself understands this term and what content it gives to it. The ideas of experts F. Duchêne, Y. Manners, J. Delor, and T. Dies are considered by the authors. Some experts consider that F. Duchêne`s concept of “civil power” is, in a sense, a precursor to the concept of “soft power”. According to others, unlike the approaches of “soft power” and “civil power”, “normative power” does not oppose the military component of the state's foreign policy. The distinctive feature of the European concept of “normative power”, in the context of the emergence of the “soft power" concept”, lies not in methodological discussions but in the importance of the political and ideological consequences of deepening the European integration project.