Politicisation and Contestion in 50 Years of EU Foreign Policy Cooperation

Abstract

What did 50 years of foreign policy cooperation, 25 years of Common Foreign and Security Policy, and 10 years of Lisbon Treaty reforms deliver for the international identity of the EU and its member states? Is the EU foreign policy system and the EU as non-traditional foreign policy actor fit to deliver within the changing international system despite the increased politicization and contestation from within? Starting from these broad questions, this panel puts our understanding of the evolution of the EU foreign policy during the past 50 years into the perspective of changing European and international dynamics of increased politicisation, growing contestation and a more assertive rejection of cooperation. In providing different perspectives, we aim to contribute understanding of how political disagreement, ranging from contestation to confrontation to disintegration, shape EU foreign policy-making, but also how much the EU foreign policy system allows for diversity. The papers present different perspectives but also a variety of theoretical and methodological approaches: Juncos and Pomorska show how contestation plays out on the micro-level in EU structures, while Maurer and Wright take an institutional approach to show how increased institutional integration during the past 10 years impacted member states engagement via the Political and Security Committee. Raube critically asks how de-centering of EU foreign policy can be understood as a mean to overcome contestation and how it relates to legitimacy, and Whitman presents Brexit as the currently most extreme example of contestation and disintegration and scrutinizes if the “hybrid associated membership status” of the UK provides evidence for extreme but generalizable or unique policy foreign policy developments.

Title	Details
The ‘Troika’ in Its Own Words: Responding to the Politicisation of the Southern European Crises	View Paper Details
Politicisation and Contestation in European Foreign Policy Cooperation	View Paper Details
How Much Unity Do You Need? Systemic Contestation in EU Foreign and Security Cooperation	View Paper Details
Contestation, Resilience and Re-Centring EU External Relations in the 'Age of Anxiety'	View Paper Details
The UK and EU Foreign, Security and Defence Policy Relationship During the Brexit Interregnum: (Re)integration, Autonomy or Atrophy?	View Paper Details