Differentiation in EU foreign and defence policies

Authors: Juha Jokela, Marco Siddi and Tyyne Karjalainen Differentiation is a frequent modus operandi in European foreign and defence policies. EU treaties have introduced legal frameworks for various types of formal differentiated integration in these policy areas, but they have rarely been used in the field of foreign policy and only recently launched in the field of defence policy. On the other hand, empirical analyses show that EU member states have engaged in a range of informal practices of differentiation, such as regional groupings, contact and lead groups, and various defence initiatives. This article reviews the scholarly literature and recent empirical analyses of differentiation in EU foreign and defence policies, and in doing so, it discusses the strengths and weaknesses of theorizing EU foreign and defence policies. Drawing on case studies of EU foreign policy in the Western Balkans, the Middle East and the Eastern neighbourhood, this article argues that differentiated integration has had ambivalent outcomes depending on the international context. In a second step, the article assesses external differentiated integration in EU foreign policy, most notably by evaluating the approximation of selected non-member states (Turkey, Western Balkan countries and the United Kingdom) to EU foreign policy. Finally, the article analyses Permanent Structured Cooperation as a form of differentiation in the field of defence policy and its interlinkages with other European defence initiatives.