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Przegląd Europejski – European Studies Quarterly

The European Union as a smart power in the international scene: treaty-based commercial policy and objectives of new-generation free trade agreements

2026, No. 1

Małgorzata Czermińska

0000-0002-6935-1031

Uniwersytet Ekonomiczny w Krakowie

Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski Krakow University

DOI

10.31338/1641-2478pe.1.26.1

Publication date

28.04.2026

Submission date

02.11.2025

Acceptance date

24.04.2026

Publishing model

open access

License type

CC BY 4.0 Int.

Field

Humanities

Discipline

economics and finance, international relations, management and quality studies, social communication and media studies, political and administrative sciences, sociology

Language of publication

English

Downloads

PDF 304 KB

Article

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Number of downloads:60

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Abstract

Smart power can be defined as an effective combination of both hard and soft power. The article's aim is to examine the relationship between the European Union's position in international affairs and the treaty-based commercial policy it pursues, as well as to demonstrate that negotiations of trade agreements and their objectives allow it to be a smart power. To achieve the research objective, the study employs empirical methods, including indirect observation and descriptive analysis, as well as deductive and inductive reasoning. The research demonstrates that the European Union combines measures of specific pressure (conditionality of granted preferences) based on hard power with soft power measures, as a consequence of which at the international stage it starts to play a role that can be described as smart power.

Keywords:

soft power,hard power,smart power,the European Union,New-Generation Free Trade Agreements

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