Is the European Union becoming a great power?

This thesis determines whether the European Union is becoming a great power. To do so, it addresses two questions: 1) Is the EU developing a unified foreign policy and 2) is the EU developing the military capability required of a great power? The biggest barrier to EU great power status is a unified foreign policy. The EU needs to modify its voting procedures and develop a single representative voice before it can have a unified foreign policy. Such changes will probably occur, but not in the immediate future. The EU also needs a military capability to become a great power. It is currently developing a rapid reaction force that will constitute a military capability when it comes to fruition in 2003. A secondary purpose of the thesis is to assess the utility of Neo-Realist theory for explaining EU security and defense cooperation, an area in which it has been neglected