The EU's new foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton has called on Brussels to combine its hard and soft power to assume greater international power and responsiblity. In her first major security policy speech since assuming office as the diplomatic director of the European Union, Ashton said the EU should combine its soft and hard power to take responsibility on the international stage. "We must mobilize all our levers of influence - political, economic, plus civil and military crisis management tools - in support of a single political strategy." Ashton made the comments at the Munich Security Conference, a a gathering of the world's top defense officials. "The days when a common EU foreign policy was regarded as mere talk are numbered," she said at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday.
In her first major security policy speech since assuming office as the diplomatic director of the European Union, Ashton said the EU should combine its soft and hard power to take responsibility on the international stage.
"We must mobilize all our levers of influence - political, economic, plus civil and military crisis management tools - in support of a single political strategy."
Ashton made the comments at the Munich Security Conference, a a gathering of the world's top defense officials.
"The days when a common EU foreign policy was regarded as mere talk are numbered," she said at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday.
full of the audacity of hope, or something. ~"When an inner situation is not made conscious, it appears outside as fate." Karl Jung~
