This file is to be used only for a purpose specified by Palgrave Macmillan, such as checking proofs, preparing an index, reviewing, endorsing or planning coursework/other institutional needs. You may store and print the file and share it with others helping you with the specified purpose, but under no circumstances may the file be distributed or otherwise made accessible to any other third parties without the express prior permission of Palgrave Macmillan. Please contact rights@palgrave.com if you have any queries regarding use of the file. March 30, 2011 18:9 MAC/NORM Page-83 9780230_577640_06_cha05 PROOF 5 Power Discourses and Power Practices: The EU’s Role as a Normative Power in Bosnia Ana E. Juncos Introduction If there is one geographical region where the European Union (EU) has been said to have deployed its normative power, the Western Balkans is it. This chapter seeks to unpack the concept of Normative Power Europe (NPE) and examine its validity in explaining EU activities in the Western Balkans in general, and in Bosnia and Herzegovina (hereafter Bosnia) in particular. Here the EU has tried to promote the Copenhagen criteria, and above all, the respect of minority rights, rule of law and compli- ance with the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY). Together with its traditional economic and diplomatic instruments (including the membership carrot), the EU has deployed police and military missions in the region aiming to promote stability, democracy and human rights. A closer look at the EU’s intervention in Bosnia allows us to make a more nuanced evaluation of NPE. First, and despite recent concerns in the lit- erature about the development of EU military capabilities, the empirical evidence shows that the main threat to the deployment of normative power in Bosnia does not come from the militarisation of the EU, but from other ‘softer’ power practices. Military instruments (EUFOR Althea) have been used as a last resort, in accordance with international law, and enjoy broader local and international legitimacy. In other words, the construction of the EU as a normative power has not suffered – and, one could argue, has even bene- fited – from the deployment of a military force in the country. In contrast, one can single out other power practices that have undermined the nor- mative power of the EU in Bosnia. Apart from consistency problems that affect EU external action more generally (‘double standards’ and consistency among EU actors and policies), the EU’s failure to promote local owner- ship of the reform process, practices of ‘othering’ and securitisation, and techniques of ‘governmentality’ cast a doubt on the normative nature of 83