Current Research
EU foreign policy and external relations. International relations. Foreign policy analysis. The relationship between foreign policy cooperation in the EU and the national foreign policies of the EU Member States.The concept of Europeanisation.
Dissertation Outline
Title: National Adaptation to the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) of the EU?
The effects of the CFSP on the foreign policies of Belgium, Ireland and Austria (June 2005)
Puzzle and Research Questions
Although regarding some cases such as the conflict on Iraq in 2003 the EU member states did not speak with one voice, there has been a significant development since European Political Cooperation (EPC) – the forerunner of the CFSP – was created in 1970. Whereas foreign policy cooperation was of an informal nature at first, in the meantime a duty of the EU member states to consult one another was formalized in legal agreements. In practice, much of the foreign policy making process has been transferred from the national capitals to Brussels. More and more areas have been opened up to EPC/CFSP and an evolution towards a greater convergence of member states’ positions as well as the emergence of shared sets of policy understanding, e.g. over the Palestinian issue, can be observed. An
‘acquis politique’ has evolved, which provides the direction for further cooperation of the member states. Furthermore, participants in the process of EPC/CFSP have pointed to a
‘coordination reflex’ of foreign policy makers.
It seems that the national foreign policies of the EU member states not only constrain (or enable) a common European foreign policy but that at the same time these national foreign policies themselves are affected by the CFSP. Thus, the basic aim of this study is to further explore this seemingly reciprocal relationship by focusing on the side of it which has received less attention so far. The key analytical question therefore is: In how far have the national foreign policies of EU member states been adapted or transformed by operating within an EU institutional context, and furthermore, how can we explain and understand this process of Europeanisation?
Theories and Hypotheses
This project principally makes a case for the applicability and utility of the concept of Europeanisation for the area of foreign policy. However, as the mode of policy-making within the CFSP is still fundamentally different from most policy fields which have been at the centre of attention of Europeanisation studies so far, it is argued that in applying Europeanisation to foreign policy, the analytical framework has to be refined. It is assumed that there are two basic dimensions of the Europeanisation of the foreign policies of EU member states: Europeanisation due to adaptational pressures from the CFSP and Europeanisation through the interactions of the member states within the framework of the CFSP. Whereas the former focuses on a vertical direction, the latter takes into account that there can also be horizontal mechanisms of Europeanisation.
The further theoretical base is provided by the rational choice and sociological variants of the so-called ‘new institutionalism’, which are based on different logics of action regarding how states determine and pursue their national interests and which make different assumptions about the specific causal nexus between institutions and (possible) political changes.
Therefore, the analysis is led by two basic hypotheses concerning the Europeanisation of national foreign policies: from a rationalist perspective, it can principally be expected that there will be no or only a low degree of Europeanisation of national foreign policies due to
I H S — Nicole Alecu de Flers / Scholar — 63
CFSP. According to this view, the outcomes of the CFSP will only be accepted if they fit the exogenously given national preferences. If there is an adaptation at all this is expected to be only strategic adaptation, i.e. there might possibly be changes of the strategies of the actors, while their preferences are regarded as stable. In contrast, a social constructivist approach would assume that the preferences of the member states are not given and that the CFSP can also have more profound effects on the preferences and perceptions of identity of actors.
In addition, the rationalist and the social constructivist perspective each assume different further mediating factors, which also come into play and may hinder or facilitate the Europeanisation of national foreign policy and which thus may help to explore and explain common features and possible variations in the Europeanisation of the national foreign policies of the EU member states.
Methods
Besides the evaluation of the secondary literature on Belgian, Irish and Austrian foreign policy, the project will draw on a content analysis of documents, statements and reports on the foreign policy of the national governments (e.g. the Austrian Foreign Policy Yearbooks).
To be able to differentiate the conclusions drawn on the basis of this material and to determine whether they are valid, it is further intended to conduct semi-structured interviews with senior officials and diplomats of the foreign ministries of the three states.
In general, the method of analysis which is applied is process-tracing, i.e. it is precisely examined ‘who knows and does what, when and why’. This method is particularly suitable for addressing the problem of equifinality and for differentiating between changes of foreign policy pointing to Europeanisation and changes caused by other phenomena. In principle, the search for generalizable empirical regularities and systematic knowledge, which might be valid beyond the cases at hand, is not to be at the expense of detailed and thorough historical analysis.
Furthermore, as this project also has to deal with the so-called ‘agent-structure problem’, an analytical distinction between structure and agent will be drawn by adopting bracketing as a methodological device. This means that the structures will be bracketed, i.e. taken as given, when analysing the individual actors and their actions (and the actors will be taken as given when examining the structures, while the focus of this project is on the former rather than on this latter perspective).
Previous Research
“‘Europeanisation’ of national foreign policy? Effects of the Common Foreign and Security Policy of the EU on the foreign policy of Austria”, Aug. 2003, Diplomarbeit, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany
Abstract
By assuming that the national foreign policies of the member states not only constrain or enable CFSP but that these national foreign policies themselves are simultaneously affected by CFSP this thesis takes up a new approach towards investigating the outlook for a common European foreign policy. It particularly uses the concept of Europeanisation – which has received much attention in Public Policy Analysis in recent years – for analysing whether the national foreign policy of Austria has changed due to its participation in CFSP. Three dimensions of the foreign policy of Austria are examined: foreign policy institutions and processes; instruments and strategies; foreign policy objectives and positions. An extensive Europeanisation especially concerning foreign-policy making but also as to the overall content of foreign policy is detected. While the evaluation of the findings shows that on the whole, the participation in CFSP and the Europeanisation of its foreign policy entails more advantages than constraints for Austria and thus can be seen as a welcome opportunity, particularly the changes in the interpretation of neutrality also point to effects on the foreign policy identity. In conclusion it is suggested that not only the foreign policy processes and strategies have changed but that CFSP has possibly also affected the perceptions of foreign policy challenges and Austrian foreign policy preferences.
I H S — Juan Casado-Asensio / Scholar — 65