The European union as a peacemaker: Future challenges

The role of the EU as a peacemaker is embedded in its own origins and the functioning of its institutions. The role of peacemaker is performed in a variety of ways including armed peace support operations, political mediation, normative power, and economic inducements. Here we present three examples of the EU as a peacemaker in Northern Ireland, Macedonia, and Chad. We then argue that the EU is now less able to fulfil its peacemaker functions due to the challenges it faces as a result of external migration pressures and internal threats to its democratic values. By revisiting the Northern Ireland and Macedonia cases, as well as the failed European Union Force (EUFOR)-Libya episode, we demonstrate the extent to which the EU has lost its normative capacity and is now failing to exercise its peacemaker role successfully.