Practice in the field – reshaping the EU’s foreign policy-making from the inside

Purpose of this paper is to explore ways of theorizing the emergence, reproduction and change of diplomatic practices and cultures in the EU, and to see how they are influenced by and to what extent they are themselves reshaping modus and style of European foreign policy-making. Building on the research on organizational behaviour and the literatures related to diplomatic practices, the paper explores novel ways of theorizing and offers fresh insights with regard to the implications of changing roles and decision-behaviour in diplomacy on the formulation and implementation of the European Union’s foreign policy. Organizational theory and behavioural analysis may contribute to the understanding of the inner workings of international politics via the study of practices by developing a theory of behavioural and decision-making practices in IR. Such research on the transformation of the European diplomatic field and practices may in turn inform about the state of the Union, the level of integration and the status of EU polity building. The presented insights add the study of a ‘critical case’ of re-arranging government apparatuses, and re-structuring the exercise of state-power. The question the paper addresses is, how are certain institutional logics (systems of meanings and values) ‘infused in individuals’, and under what conditions are certain logics activated and followed-up on, especially when decision-makers are limited by bounded rationality and face simultaneous and competing constraints, concerns and incentives? Empirically the study draws on data from the EU’s recently established diplomatic service, entrusted with the formulation and implementation of the EU’s external policies and European diplomatic representation. This ‘hybrid’ and ‘interstitial’ organization operates as a ‘joined-up’ and integrated, yet relatively independent and supranational EU foreign policy administration at the intersection of the different branches of the EU's. It is located in-between the supranational and the intergovernmental spheres and competences, bridging the EU’s various levels and sectors of government. Also its composition and staffing comprise elements and members stemming from different institutional provenance, combining diverse backgrounds, traditions, cultures, cognitive and behavioural logics, and ‘ways of doing things’ – a circumstance which, at least for the initial period of its existence, has been demonstrated to introduce a number of ambiguities and ambivalences into the EEAS’ functioning, resulting in fluidity and malleability of the rules, roles and practices at work within the organization.