National foreign policies and European political cooperation

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.

Toward a theory of EU foreign policy-making: multi-level governance, domestic politics, and national adaptation to Europe's common foreign and security policy

Abstract: The expansion of European foreign and security policy co-operation since the 1970s imposes unique requirements on European Union (EU) member states, and the co- ordination of these various obligations presents a major challenge to the EU's pursuit of a common foreign and security policy (CFSP). However, the past decade has also seen significant progress toward the multi-level governance of EU foreign policy, particularly when compared to the limited policy co-ordination of the 1970s and 1980s. This article examines the relationship between institutional development and the multi-level governance of EU foreign policy, as represented by the CFSP. In particular, it explores: (1) the extent to which the CFSP policy space can be described in terms of multi-level governance; (2) the processes by which governance mechanisms influence the domestic foreign policy cultures of EU member states; and (3) how the interaction of domestic politics and governance mechanisms produces specific policy outcomes.

Renationalizing or Regrouping? EU Foreign Policy Since 11 September 2001

Abstract: This article considers whether the most recent phase of European foreign policy-making, since the atrocity of 11 September, has exposed fatal flaws in the EU's Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), or whether it is too soon for dismissive judgements. It asks to what extent Member States have fallen back on their own resources, and to what extent there are signs of regrouping, so as to take the CFSP on to the next stage. It examines the main substantive challenges which have preoccupied Europe since 11 September, some of the key foreign policy issues which predated but then became complicated by it, and finally the more structural issues such as the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP), the Convention on constitutional reform, and enlargement. It concludes that the current crisis is not rendering European foreign policy redundant, and that there continues to be the will, if not always the capacity, to produce collective action.

The European Challenge to Foreign Policy Analysis

Abstract: This article explores `European foreign policy' as an important new empirical domain of foreign policy and also as a challenging vehicle for evaluating the current status of Foreign Policy Analysis...

The framing of European foreign and security policy: towards a post-modern policy framework?

Abstract: This article explores the evolution of the common foreign and security policy (CFSP) and the common European security and defence policy (CESDP), taken to represent European foreign and security policy, with an emphasis on the continuous reframing of policy within a changing "foreign policy space'. Having identified the key phases in the evolution of this European foreign policy space, the article then pursues two general aims: first, to establish how far this evolution reflects the interaction of ideas, institutions and policies; second, to assess the significance of a number of key "drivers' common to many areas of policy within the EU - the search for legitimacy, the preferences of member states and the desire for environmental stabilization. On the basis of this exploration, the article argues that it is possible to discern the emergence of a "post-modern' or " extra-national' foreign policy in the EU, which has significant echoes of policy- making in other areas of EU activity.