Conclusion: The Relevance of Normative Power in a Changing Europe

The concluding chapter provides an answer to the central question of the book, whether the European Union’s democracy promotion in South Eastern Europe, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia can be understood through the prism of Normative Power Europe and, subsequently, what insights the answer to this question offers for reconceptualizing NPE itself. The chapter does so in two steps. In the first step, it summarizes the empirical conclusions established throughout the book regarding the process and effects of the EU’s democratization policy in the studied regions. In the second step, it draws from these conclusions to rethink Normative Power Europe from both a conceptual (what it is) and operational (how it should be studied) point of view.