Solidarity has become a major reference point in the discourse surrounding EU foreign policy, particularly in the context of major conflicts and crisis developments such as the wars in Ukraine, Gaza and Sudan. Yet, despite its growing relevance, how solidarity is constructed and practised in the EU’s foreign policy remains under-theorised and under-studied empirically. The purpose of this Workshop is to further develop our theoretical understanding of the concept of ‘international solidarity’ in the EU’s external action through interdisciplinary research, and to explore empirically the relationship between ‘international solidarity’, conflict and crisis in the EU’s foreign policy discourse and practice.
In the study of European integration, solidarity has developed into an important analytical concept (Grimmel 2017). First, there is a strong focus on ‘intergovernmental solidarity’ – i.e. patterns of solidarity among member states in crisis situations such as the European economic and financial crisis 2008-9 (Eriksen 2017), the European migration and asylum policy crisis in 2015 (Vaagland & Zaun 2024), or the Covid-19 pandemic (Anghel & Jones 2023; Genschel & Jachtenfuchs 2021). Second, the literature has also focused extensively on ‘transnational solidarity’, i.e. attitudes of solidarity that individual EU citizens hold vis-à-vis other EU member states and their populations (Katsanidou et al. 2022; Kriesi et al. 2024; Frizell et al. 2025). Conversely, less attention has been paid to the EU’s ‘international solidarity’, i.e. the EU’s solidarity with societies and nation states in the international arena (Knodt and Tews 2017). How solidarity is constructed and practised in EU foreign policy remains a significant research gap.
Engaging with the topic and building a community of scholars interested in the EU’s ‘international solidarity’ is particularly timely against the backdrop of an international environment marked by growing geopolitical competition, the contestation of core international institutions that underpin the liberal global order, and war on Europe’s doorstep. Drawing on related strands of research on solidarity – international law, political theory, and international relations – the Workshop contributes to a better understanding of the EU’s international relations in times of conflict and crisis by exploring the role of ‘international solidarity’.
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Eriksen, E.O. (2017). Structural Injustice: The Eurozone Crisis and the Duty of Solidarity. In: A. Grimmel and S.M. Giang (eds.), Solidarity in the European Union, Wiesbaden: Springer VS, 97-118.
Frizell et al. (2025): War, solidarity and welfare attitudes: survey evidence from the war in Ukraine, Journal of European Public Policy, online first.
Furness, M., Ghica, A., Lighfoot, S. and Szent-Iványi, B. (2020). EU development policy: evolving as an instrument of foreign policy and as an expression of solidarity. Journal of Contemporary European Research, 16(2), 89-100.
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Katsanidou, A., Reinl, A. and Eder, C. (2022). Together we stand? Transnational solidarity in the EU in times of crisis, European Union Politics, 23(1), 66-78.
Knodt, M. and Tews, A. (2017). European Solidarity and Its Limits: Insights from Current Political Challenges. In: In: A. Grimmel and S.M. Giang (eds.), Solidarity in the European Union, Wiesbaden: Springer VS, 47-65.
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Kriesi, H., Moise, A.D. and Oana, I. (2024). The determinants of transnational solidarity in the EU. West European Politics, 48(6), 1243-1269.
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1: What patterns of EU international solidarity in discourse and practice are observable?
2: How is EU solidarity with third countries or societies involved in conflict and crisis constructed and practised?
3: How can we explain varying degrees (and a lack) of solidarity by the EU with third countries and societies?
4: What are domestic/external effects of EU solidarity with third countries or societies? (legitimacy, contestation)
5: How do appeals to solidarity by external actors affect EU foreign policy?
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| International Solidarity and Democratic Norm Diffusion: The Potential of the IMEC Corridor |
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| Signaling Solidarity: Intra-Alliance Policy Signals and Public Preferences for Military Aid |
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| Filling the gap? US aid cuts and European solidarity |
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| Selective Solidarities: Civil Society and the Relational Politics of the European Union’s Foreign Policy |
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| The global coalition that stood for Ukraine: comparing the role of transnational networks in tackling the global food and security crises |
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| Endogenous Troubles, Exogenous Sympathy: Policy Legacies and Public Support for EU Solidarity |
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| Autonomy and solidarity in EU foreign policy |
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| Solidarity and the EU in the context of hybrid threats: Narrative intersections (the case of Germany’s first permanent foreign deployment to Lithuania) |
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| How solidarity with Palestine took hold in the Brussels bubble: Decolonial activism in the field of Eurocracy |
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| Bilateralisation in EU development policy and international solidarity |
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| The Politics of Solidarity: Contesting Europe’s Development Narrative |
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| Solidarity in Wartime: EU-Ukraine Green Transition Cooperation |
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| Solidarity as Resource in the European Union (EU)´s Foreign Policy with Africa |
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| External perceptions of the EU’s and China’s solidarity among African citizens: insights from survey research |
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| Solidarity as Selective Practice: Legal Norms, Geopolitical Interests, and the EU’s Divergent Responses to Ukraine and Gaza |
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| I Stand by You: the EU as a Defender of Norms Against the Use of Force |
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| Bidding goodbye to global solidarity? The Transformation of EU Development Discourse in an Era of Geopolitical Competition |
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| Between Solidarity and Strategy: The Evolution of EU Development Aid |
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| Action in Concert: European Union Solidarity in Planetary Politics |
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