High-ranking European officials have called upon the European Union to play a bigger role in ending the violence in Sudan’s region of Darfur. The Darfur crisis could yet present another opportunity for the EU to assert itself militarily.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso made statements on September 17 encouraging the EU to intervene.

“[T]he EU should play a central role in mobilizing world opinion on this issue,” wrote Mr. Blair in a letter to his 24 EU counterparts, according to UK newspapers.

Echoing Mr. Blair, Mr. Barroso said the EU must “step up our political engagement” to ward off a humanitarian crisis. Mr. Barroso plans to travel to Sudan and the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa to discuss the crisis.

Violence in Darfur has claimed the lives of an estimated 400,000 civilians and turned 2 million more into refugees. The African Union’s attempts to halt the violence have failed, and its contingent of 7,000 troops is set to leave Darfur starting September 30 unless the peacekeeping force’s mandate is renewed. Last month, the United Nations Security Council adopted a resolution calling for 20,000 UN troops to be deployed to Darfur, but Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir has refused to allow such an operation.

The EU is pushing for more economic incentives to be implemented to pressure al-Beshir to cooperate.

As was the case with respect to crises in Lebanon and the Congo, pressure on the EU to increase its role as an international mediator is intensifying. In Darfur’s case, the plea comes from Europeans themselves, showing Europe’s willingness to fill the gap a declining United States has left in policing the world.

Likewise, the growing number of EU commitments in non-European nations demonstrates the world’s growing acceptance of the EU’s newfound global leadership status.

The world is full of crises. As more continue to spring up, watch for the EU to take on a major role in resolving them. As the EU takes advantage of these situations, it will inevitably increase its credentials as the world’s next superpower.