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This book reviews a variety of approaches to the study of the European Union's foreign policy. Much analysis of EU foreign policy contains theoretical assumptions about the nature of the EU and its member states, their inter-relationships, the international system in which they operate and the nature of European integration. The book outlines the possibilities for the use of discourse analysis in the study of European foreign policy. It sets out to explore the research problem using a political-cultural approach and seeks to illuminate the cognitive mind-maps with which policy-makers interpret their political 'realities'. The book provides an overview and analysis of some of the non-realist approaches to international relations and foreign policy, and proposes an analytical framework with which to explore the complex interplay of factors affecting European foreign policy. The book suggests one way of seeking theoretical parsimony without sacrificing the most defining empirical knowledge which has been generated about Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) over the years. It argues that while the sui generis nature of CFSP presents an acute problem for international relations theory, it is less pronounced with regard to traditional integration theory. The book discusses the dimensions of European foreign policy-making with reference to the case of arms export controls. Situated at the interface between European studies and international relations, it outlines how the EU relates to the rest of the world, explaining its effort towards creating a credible, effective and principled foreign, security and defence policy.
This book provides readers with an analytical framework that serves to investigate and explain how the EU adapts its foreign policy in the wake of crisis. While a range of studies dedicated to foreign policy stability and change exist for the US context, such analyses are rare for the assessment and measurement of foreign policy change at the European Union level. This book explores a range of theories of (foreign) policy change and assesses their value for explaining EU foreign policy change. Changes to EU foreign policy, this study proposes based upon an in-depth investigation of recent episodes in which foreign policy has changed, are not captured well using existing typologies of policy change from other fields of study.
Offering a new perspective on the question of change, this book proposes an analytical framework focused on how institutions, institutional ‘plasticity’ and temporal context impact on the decision-making process leading to change. It thus provides readers with the tools to analyse, explain and conceptualise the various change outcomes in EU foreign policy. In so doing, it sets the theoretical approach of historical institutionalism to work in an EU foreign policy setting. Based on a rich empirical analysis of five case studies it provides a revised typology of EU foreign policy change. It proposes two novel forms of foreign policy change, symbolic change and constructive ambiguity, as frequent and important outcomes of the EU decision-making process.
Turkey's involvement in the Gulf War in 1991 paved the way for the country's acceptance into the European Union. This book traces that process, and in the first part looks at Turkey's foreign policy in the 1990s, considering the ability of the country to withstand the repercussions of the fall of communism. It focuses on Turkey's achievement in halting and minimising the effects of the temporary devaluation in its strategic importance that resulted from the waning of the Cold War and the disintegration of the Soviet Union; the skilful way in which Turkey avoided becoming embroiled in the ethnic upheavals in Central Asia, the Balkans and the Middle East; and the development of a continued policy of closer integration into the European and western worlds. Internal politics are the focus of the second part of the book, addressing the curbing of the Kurdish revolt, the economic gains made and the strengthening of civil society. The book goes on to analyse the prospects for Turkey in the twenty-first century, in the light of the possible integration into Europe, which may leave the country's leadership free to deal effectively with domestic issues.
This book represents the first ever comprehensive study of the EU’s foreign and security policy in Bosnia since the dissolution of the Yugoslav Federation in 1991. Drawing on historical institutionalism, it explains the EU’s contribution to post-conflict stabilisation and conflict resolution in Bosnia. The book demonstrates that institutions are a key variable in explaining levels of coherence and effectiveness of the EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) and that institutional legacies and unintended consequences have shaped CFSP impact over time. In doing so, it also sheds new light on the role that intergovernmental, bureaucratic and local political contestation have played in the formulation and implementation of a European foreign and security policy. The study concludes that the EU’s involvement in Bosnia has not only had a significant impact on this Balkan country in its path from stabilisation to integration, but has also transformed the EU, its foreign and security policy and shaped the development of the EU’s international identity along the way.
towards the outward projection of the Union’s interests is one of the factors giving rise to the prospect of a European Union foreign policy. EU foreign policy, in this perspective, is more than just CFSP. It involved the totality of the EU’s external relations, combining political, economic, humanitarian and, more recently, also military instruments at the disposal of the Union. It is the study of this broader concept, going
officially embarked on its strategic outreach to the Asia-Pacific region. It went far beyond its traditional focus of external relations with its immediate neighbours and the ACP countries, which are mostly former European colonies. This courageous move was 8Introduction driven by its ambition to implement its embryonic, yet high-profile European Union foreign policy and by the increasing appeal of the rapid development of the Asia-Pacific region. Since the mid-1990s, the Asia-Pacific region has been identified as one of its key strategic targets on its ambitious road to
This book raised a series of challenges confronting those aiming to explore changes to European Union foreign policy. The first challenge concerned the field of study itself. Whereas a range of studies exist dedicated to explaining stability and change in foreign policy for the US context, I explained how such a clearly delimited field of study is absent for the analysis of change in EU foreign policy. Students asking why and how particular policy areas in EU foreign policy witness change as a result of crisis were thus forced to confront the
Publishing ). Øhrgaard , J.C. ( 2004 ) ‘ International relations or European integration: Is the CFSP sui generis? ’, in B. Tonra and T. Christiensen (eds), Rethinking European Union Foreign Policy ( Manchester : Manchester University Press ): 26–44 . Okemuo , G. ( 2013 ). ‘The EU or France? The CSDP Mission in Mali the
Union’, in S. Lucarelli and I. Manners (eds), Values and Principles in European Union Foreign Policy (London: Routledge, 2006 ). Lisbeth Aggestam provides valuable background on how it was possible to overcome internal differences and deviating role-conceptions to negotiate agreement on the CFSP. Aggestam concludes that the ‘three greats’ have gradually converged on the
–157 . Tocci , N. ( 2017 ) ‘From the European Security Strategy to the EU Global Strategy: Explaining the journey’, International Politics , 54 ( 4 ): 487–502 . Tonra , B. and T. Christiansen (eds) ( 2018 ) Rethinking European Union Foreign Policy ( Manchester : Manchester University Press ). Walby , S. ( 2015 ) Crisis ( Cambridge : Polity ).