Have military missions changed the character of the EU’s foreign involvement? This study
aims to answers this question by empirically assessing the EU’s external policy objectives
and the policy instruments employed in the case of the former Yugoslav Republic of
Macedonia (fYROM), where it conducted its first military operation, Operation Concordia.
This way it contributes to the debate between three contrasting theories of how military
means will affect the character of the EU’s foreign policies: anti-military Normative Power
Europe, pro-military Normative Power Europe and Realist Power Europe. The study, on the
basis of extensive document analysis, secondary literature and interviews, gives an in-depth
account of the EU’s involvement with fYROM over time, and concludes that Operation
Concordia has not fundamentally changed the character of the EU’s involvement with
fYROM. With these findings, it calls for refinement of existing theories as they, on the one
hand, raise doubts on the claim of anti-military Normative Power Europe and Realist Power
Europe that military means necessarily implies a (further) shift towards the EU’s narrow selfinterest,
while on the other hand, the claim of both types of Normative Power that the EU
without military means was already a normative power is criticized as well.