To What Ends EU Foreign Policy? Contending Approaches to the Union’s Diplomatic Objectives and Representation

In: The Hague Journal of Diplomacy
Authors: Daniel C. Thomas 2 and Ben Tonra 2
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  • 1 Dublin European Institute, UCD School of Politics and International Relations, University College Dublin, Dublin 4, Ireland
  • 2 daniel.thomas@ucd.ie ben.tonra@ucd.ie
Online Publication Date:
01 Jan 2012
In:
Volume 7: Issue 1
Article Type:
Research Article
Page Count:
11–29
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1163/187119112X609176
Keywords:
European Union (EU); foreign policy; common foreign and security policy (CFSP); interests; preferences; identity

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Summary

The strengthened Office of the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and the new European External Action Service (EEAS) presuppose a set of interests and/or values that the European Union (EU) wishes to pursue on the world stage. But what are those interests and/or values and how does the EU reach agreement on them? Rather than simply ‘cutting and pasting’ from EU treaties and strategy papers, this article identifies seven distinct theoretical models of how the EU and its member states arrive collectively at a definition of their diplomatic objectives. The seven models include intergovernmentalist models of veto threats and log-rolling, normative institutionalist models of cooperative bargaining and entrapment, and constructivist and sociological institutionalist models of elite socialization, Europeanization and collective identity formation. The article identifies the logics of each model and notes their implications for the role of the EU’s new foreign policy institutions.

In:
The Hague Journal of Diplomacy
E-ISSN:
1871-191X
Print ISSN:
1871-1901
Publisher:
Brill | Nijhoff
Cover The Hague Journal of Diplomacy
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