Simon Nuttall

Bio: Simon Nuttall is an academic researcher. The author has contributed to research in topics: European integration & European studies. The author has an hindex of 3, co-authored 3 publications receiving 145 citations.

The Governance of the European Union: A New Institutionalist Approach*

Abstract: The analysis of European integration has tended to use a toolkit drawn from international relations. But since the revival of integration in the mid-1980s, the governance of the European Community and European Union has increasingly come to resemble that of a multi-tiered state. Accordingly, this article analyzes the governance of the European Union from a comparative public policy perspective. Using new or historical institutionalism, three levels are considered. In the first part, attention is focused on the EU's institutions and the available instruments of governance. The second part examines the analysis of governance at the policy-specific or sub-system level, and puts forward an approach based on governance regimes. The final part considers the institutional roots of the persistent, regulatory character of governance in the European Union.

Anchoring Europe's civilizing identity: habits, capabilities and ontological security1

Abstract: What effects might the deepening CFSP have on the EU's identity as a civilian and civilizing power? While greater military capabilities might seem to threaten that identity, raising the specter of ‘great power Europe’, such fears might not be warranted. Building on the assumption that actors need stable identities – in Anthony Giddens' term, ontological security – and achieve them by routinizing relations with significant others, I examine the routines through which EU member states secure their civilian and civilizing identity. I argue that the publicity and deliberation inherent in those routines can help to stabilize healthy security relations among EU member states and in Europe's external relations, thus strengthening the EU's role as a civilizing power.

Institutionalization, Policy Adaptation and European Foreign Policy Cooperation

Abstract: The expansion of European Union (EU) foreign policy cooperation since 1970 presents a number of puzzles for theorists of regional integration and International Relations. It is not directed by supranational organizations, does not involve bargaining over policy alternatives, and is not dominated by the largest EU states. Nor do the EU’s common foreign policy decisions reflect ‘lowest common denominator’ preferences. Instead, cooperation has been achieved through decentralized institutional mechanisms, involving processes associated with both intergovernmental and social constructivist theories. This article first explains how changes in institutional context — in terms of intergovernmental, transgovernmental and supranational procedures — affect the propensity for cooperation. It then links processes of institutionalization to an expansion of foreign policy cooperation among EU member states. Finally, it explores three policy areas (the Middle East, South Africa and nuclear non-proliferation) where EU states have adjusted their national foreign policies in line with EU foreign policy norms.

Conforming to Europe: the domestic impact of EU foreign policy co-operation

Abstract: European co - operation in foreign policy, or political co - operation, recently completed its third decade of institutional development. Most of this change has taken place at European level, often by adopting or adapting the procedures of the European Community. Yet the expansion of foreign, and now security, policy co - operation in the European Union (EU) has also increasingly penetrated into the domestic politics of its member states. This article suggests a conceptual framework for measuring the ways political co - operation has encouraged corresponding changes in EU member states. Four indicators of national adaptation are stressed: elite socialization, bureaucratic restructuring, constitutional changes,and changes in public perceptions about the desirability and legitimacy of this co - operation. These types of change demonstrate that the demands of foreign policy co - operation are much greater than those outlined in treaty articles, and must be taken into consideration as the EU negotiates its n...

The european union: a politically incorrect view

Abstract: to the United States, the "United States of Europe?" The answer is no. As Article 1 of the recent European Constitution states, Europe is, and will remain, a union of independent countries. Nevertheless, an unresolved tension between those who would like the European Union to evolve into a supernational entity (the federalists or supernationalists) and those who would like it to stay a union of independent governments (the intergovernmentalists) has shaped much of the history of European institutions. The natural starting point for a U.S. scholar studying the process of European integration would be the notion of "division of powers." Europe has developed instead a system of "institutional balance" based on overlapping jurisdictions: the legislative, executive and regulatory powers are shared by many institutions, so much so that the distinction itself between legislative and executive acts is blurred?something that would make James Madison turn in his grave. It could hardly be otherwise. The European Union has been created gradually by a group of established countries with different secular histories, including dozens of internecine wars, and different institutions. The European countries were understandably wary that a single European institution would absorb too much of their own sovereignty; hence the emphasis on balance. But institutional balance and overlapping jurisdictions also lead to turf wars between institutions, to