EU external policy at the crossroads: The challenge of actorness and effectiveness

International Relations

Volumn 27, Issue 3, 2013, Pages 261-275

  Niemann, Arne ^a   Bretherton, Charlotte ^b  

^a JOHANNES GUTENBERG UNIVERSITY   (Germany)

^b UNIVERSITY OF PORTSMOUTH   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

Actorness; Coherence; Effectiveness; EU external policy; European Union (EU)

Indexed keywords

EID: 84883310943     PISSN: 00471178     EISSN: 17412862     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/0047117813497306     Document Type: Review

References (111)

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18. For earlier works: Bretherton and Vogler, Global Actor (1999).
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28. It is of interest to note that a comparative perspective was adopted by one of the earliest analyses of the potential actor capability of the (then) European Economic Community (EEC)-see Carol A. Cosgrove and Kenneth J. Twitchett (eds), The New International Actors: The UN and the EEC (London: Macmillan, 1970).
29. Duchêne, 'Europe in World Peace.'
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32. For example: Karen Smith, 'Still "civilian power EU?"' (CIDEL Workshop, Oslo, Norway, 22-23 October 2004).
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37. Smith, 'Civilian Power?'; it should be noted that those defending the civilian power Europe (CPE) concept are usually those who adhere to a narrow understanding of CPE (mainly based on civilian ends), whereas those critical of the concept, in the light of the European Security and Defence Policy's evolution, usually take CPE to go beyond (civilian) ends but also to include (civilian) means and (democratic) control.
38. Manners, 'Normative Power Europe.'
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43. Niemann and de Wekker, 'Relations with Moldova.'
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46. Manners, 'Normative Power Europe'.
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54. Niemann and de Wekker, 'Relations with Moldova.'
55. Bretherton and Vogler, 'Sustainable Development Actor'.
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57. Nathalie Tocci, 'Policies Towards Israel-Palestine 2000-07,' in N. Tocci (ed.), Who Is a Normative Foreign Policy Actor? (Brussels: Centre for European Policy Studies, 2008), pp. 52-57.
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60. Cosgrove and Twitchett, New International Actors.
61. Sjöstedt, External Role.
62. Jupille and Caporaso, 'States, Agency and Rules.'
63. Cosgrove and Twitchett, New International Actors.
64. Galtung, Superpower in the Making.
65. Sjöstedt, External Role, p. 16.
66. Jupille and Caporaso, 'States, Agency and Rules,' p. 217.
67. Bretherton and Vogler, Global Actor (2006), p. 17.
68. Rosamond, 'EU Model,' p. 466.
69. Tiilikainen, 'To Be or Not to Be,' p. 223.
70. Martijn L.P. Groenleer and Louise G. van Schaik, 'United We Stand? The European Union's International Actorness in the Cases of the International Criminal Court and the Kyoto Protocol,' Journal of Common Market Studies, 45(5), 2007, pp. 969-98, p. 969.
71. Bretherton and Vogler, Global Actor (2006), p. 1.
72. Koops, Integrative Power, p. 107.
73. Ginsberg, 'EU as International Actor.'
74. Jupille and Caporaso, 'States, Agency and Rules.'
75. Jupille and Caporaso, 'States, Agency and Rules,' p. 217.
76. What Jupille and Caporaso mean by 'cohesion,' the majority of authors have referred to as 'coherence' (for example, Daniel Thomas, 'Still Punching below Its Weight: Coherence and Effectiveness in EU Foreign Policy' (article prepared for the European Union Studies Association conference, Boston, MA, 3-5 March 2011).
77. Louise van Schaik, 'Is the Sum More than its Parts? A Comparative Case Study on the Relationship between EU Unity and its Effectiveness in Multilateral Negotiations' (PhD Thesis, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium, 2010.
78. See also the discussion below), while Nutall has used the term (vertical) 'consistency' (Simon Nutall, 'Coherence and Consistency,' in C. Hill and M. Smith (eds), The International Relations of the European Union (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), pp. 91-112, p. 97). To avoid confusion, the contributions to this Special Issue will use the term 'coherence' throughout when referring to the above phenomenon.
79. For a discussion of the social construction of authority in international politics, see Michael Barnett and Martha Finnemore, Rules for the World: International Organizations in Global Politics (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2004).
80. Bretherton and Vogler, Global Actor (1999).
81. Bretherton and Vogler, Global Actor (2006).
82. Bretherton and Vogler, Global Actor (2006), p. 24.
83. Lucarelli and Fioramonti, 'Global Images'.
84. Fioramonti and Poletti, 'Facing the Giant.'
85. J. Allen, Lost Geographies of Power (Oxford: Blackwell 2003).
86. Bretherton and Vogler, Global Actor (2006), p. 24.
87. Bretherton and Vogler, 'Sustainable Development Actor'.
88. Charlotte Bretherton and John Vogler, 'Towards an EU Policy for Sustainable Global Development?,' in D. Gänzle, S. Gänzle, S. Grimm and D. Makhan (eds), EU Policy for Global Development: Superpower in the Making? (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012), pp. 153-71.
89. Oran Young, International Governance: Protecting the Environment in a Stateless Society (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University, 1994). The latter has also been referred to as the impact dimension of effectiveness (Young, International Governance, p. 12). The authors of this Special Issue will mainly analyse effectiveness in terms of goal attainment. If not specified otherwise, effectiveness throughout this Special Issue will denote the degree to which the European Union (EU) managed to achieve its objectives. The debate on the EU's external effectiveness is related to that on the Union's 'transformative power' (for example, Mark Leonard, Why Europe Will Run the 21st Century (New York: Public Affairs, 2005).
90. Heather Grabbe, The EU's Transformative Power: Europeanization through Conditionality in Central and Eastern Europe (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006).
91. Smith, EU Foreign Policy, p. 6.
92. Smith, EU Foreign Policy, p. 6.
93. It is instructive to note, also, that a systematic, empirical analysis of a more mundane policy area-US economic assistance-was unable to demonstrate effectiveness in relation to any of the variables or time periods considered (Patrick M. Regan, 'Economic Aid and Political Repression: An Empirical Evaluation of US Foreign Policy,' Political Research Quarterly, 48(3), 1995, pp. 613-28).
94. In the quest of going beyond 'actorness,' this Special Issue confines itself to the notion of 'effectiveness' and does not seek to discuss the 'performance' dimension of EU external policy. On the EU's performance (defined as consisting of effectiveness, efficiency, relevance and resource viability), see Knut E. Jørgensen, Sebastian Oberthür and Jamal Sahin, 'Introduction: Assessing the EU's Performance in International Institutions-Conceptual Framework and Core Findings,' European Integration, 33(6), 2011, pp. 599-629.
95. Christopher Hill, 'The Capability-Expectations Gap, or Conceptualizing Europe's International Role,' Journal of Common Market Studies, 31(3), 1993, pp. 305-25.
96. Roy H. Ginsberg, The European Union in International Relations: Baptism by Fire (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2001).
97. Ginsberg, Baptism by Fire, p. 15.
98. Carmen Gebhard, 'Coherence,' in C. Hill and M. Smith (eds), International Relations and the European Union, 2nd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011), pp. 101-27, p. 101.
99. The contributors to this Special Issue will consider the implications for policy coherence/effectiveness of the most recent reforms, introduced by the Lisbon Treaty.
100. For example, Gebhard identifies four 'types of coherence' (Gebhard, 'Coherence,' p. 106).
101. Gebhard, 'Coherence.'
102. Antonio Missiroli, 'European Security Policy: The Challenge of Coherence,' European Foreign Affairs Review, 6(2), 2001, pp. 177-96, p. 182.
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104. For example: Missiroli, 'Challenge of Coherence'.
105. Szymanski and Smith, 'Coherence and Conditionality.'
106. Bretherton and Vogler, 'Sustainable Development Actor.'
107. Van Schaik, 'Is the Sum More than Its Parts?.'
108. Van Schaik, 'Is the Sum More than Its Parts?,' p. 16.
109. Thomas, 'Coherence and Effectiveness.'
110. Thomas, 'Coherence and Effectiveness,' p. 9.
111. John Peterson, 'Decision-Making in the European Union: Towards a Framework for Analysis,' Journal of European Public Policy, 2, 1995, pp. 69-96.