The article analyses the evolution of European diplomacy over two decades, to assess the impact of the European External Action Service (EEAS) creation alongside consecutive waves of enlargement. ...Data is drawn from two original datasets about European Union (EU) member states’ diplomatic representations within the EU and across the globe. It shows that member states have maintained and strengthened their substantial diplomatic footprint across the EU’s territory, expanding it to include new members and making Brussels a diplomatic hub also for non-member countries. In parallel, and despite the establishment of the EEAS, member states have maintained and even increased their networks of diplomatic representations across the globe, alongside more numerous and more politically active EU Delegations (EUDs). At the same time, member states have been reducing their diplomats’ numbers, as the cases of Austria, France, Germany and Italy show. This delicate balancing act has been made possible not only by contemporary technological developments, but also by European cooperation, as in the case of EUDs hosting member states’ representations in non-member countries, a development referred to as co-location. Therefore, whereas the continued presence of national embassies on the ground could be interpreted as detracting from the EEAS, the existence of EUDs contributes also to other, more indirect but certainly novel, forms of diplomatic cooperation under a single European roof.
This article argues that communities of practice (CoPs) provide IR with a unique way to understand how a small group of committed people can make a difference to international politics. The point is ...addressed in three steps. First, the article advances our understanding of how CoPs work. While at its core a CoP is a group of people brought together by a practice they enjoy, a CoP also shares a sense of timing, placing, and humour. These aspects help the group anchor, refine, and innovate their practice in the face of challenges and uncertainty. Second, the article contrasts the analysis of CoPs with other IR approaches, especially institutional analysis, network analysis, and epistemic communities, to show how CoPs supplement them. Third, the article illustrates the argument with the example of the EU foreign policy towards the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It concludes by suggesting that a CoP's perspective not only helps IR better understand informal politics, but also opens up conversations across disciplines.
This article explores new patterns of interaction in foreign affairs among European Union (EU) Member States post‐Lisbon, which have increased reliance on horizontal and informal practices. It argues ...that cross‐loading among Member States outside EU institutions has moved centre stage and contributed to smaller groups of like‐minded Member States working together. This shift challenges much of our understanding of Europeanization, which is based on vertical forms of uploading and downloading. We illustrate these dynamics using the case of Sweden's recognition of Palestine in October 2014. While this seemed to break away from the established EU consensus, Sweden's decision aimed at leading the way and imparting momentum, especially within the like‐minded group of EU countries. Rather than being an example of de‐Europeanization, this case shows how Member States can seek new ways of exerting influence in the post‐Lisbon environment.
Abstract
Where do communities of practice (CoPs) come from? What relationship do they entertain with institutions within or across which they develop? To what extent can institutions actually create ...CoPs? These questions are crucial, if only because of the benefits that CoPs are expected to bring, from innovation to learning to shared best practices. This article suggests that the most important relationship is between the CoP and its founding practice, which is ontologically prior to the CoP. The coming into existence of a CoP thus depends on the pre-existence of a founding practice and practical alignments. This argument counterbalances the two prevailing positions in the literature on CoPs, which focus on institutions instead of practices. In most IR literature on the topic, scholars have viewed CoPs as emerging “organically” and informally at the margins of institutions in a bottom-up fashion and from there often coming back to influence institutions bottom-up. Knowledge management scholars and institutional actors themselves have instead embraced a more agential and performative top-down approach by which CoPs can and should be cultivated to foster knowledge creation in business and international institutions alike. The article explores these positions with the help of examples drawn mainly from the European Union’s experience, including the Joint Research Centre’s attempt to cultivate CoPs from 2016 onwards.
This contribution shows the added value of analysing the European Union (EU), and more specifically the EU foreign policy system, as a community of practice, i.e. a group of people who routinely get ...together on a common or similar enterprise with the aim of developing and sharing practical knowledge. The paper analyses the COREU network, which allows member states and EU institutions to exchange confidential information about foreign policy. It argues that officials involved display the key features of a community of practice: (1) there is a high degree of mutual engagement; (2) the functions served by the network go well beyond what was first stipulated; (3) there is a shared repertoire of resources to negotiate meaning. The existence of such a community of practice suggests that there is in the EU foreign policy system at least one organizational structure able to transcend national boundaries and based instead on a European practice of foreign policy communications.
This contribution assesses the practices of EU aid to Arab countries in the Mediterranean in the post-Arab spring context, and in particular the role of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP). It ...looks at the institutional practices relevant to EU foreign policy vis-à-vis Arab countries, the main ENP policy tenets (often summarized in the 'more for more' motto) and the financial practices of committing and disbursing funds on the ENP Instrument. It shows that while there has been a proliferation of institutional actors and a nominal increase in the amount of funds available, the policy tenets did not change and the rate of funds disbursed actually worsened - a situation better described as 'less of the same'.
The article focuses on the normative connotation of European foreign policy and makes three points. First, through the criteria of inclusiveness and reflexivity, it draws a distinction between ...'normative power Europe' and Europe as a 'civilizing power'. Second, the article puts forward a sociological institutionalist interpretation of the EU as a 'civilizing power'. It suggests that much of the EU's action can be characterized as an unreflexive attempt to promote its own model because institutions tend to export institutional isomorphism as a default option. Third, the article shows the utility of a sociological institutionalist analysis by examining the case of the EU's promotion of regionalism in the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership.
This article analyses how, within the European Union foreign policy system, information is gathered and knowledge is constructed. The analysis is based on the evidence provided by a unique dataset, ...comprising the Heads of Mission reports between 1998 and 2010 and the EU member states' diplomatic networks. After distinguishing between information and knowledge, the article tackles three related aspects. First, it shows that the EU is able not only to favour information exchanges, but also to gather information and construct knowledge. Second, it argues that, while member states have an interest in contributing their own information and knowledge, European knowledge is also possible. This is demonstrated by means of an in-depth analysis of the preparation of the Heads of Mission report on East Jerusalem. Third, the article suggests that, depending on the reach of their diplomatic network, some member states are interested more than others in European information, but all member states are interested in European knowledge and in each other's interpretation of current affairs.
This article shows how the existence of a community of European practitioners in the Jerusalem area gives substance to the European stance on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The often-stated ...European Union (EU) support for a two-state solution could appear meaningless in the absence of peace negotiations. However, European diplomats (i.e. diplomats of EU member states and EU officials) in the East Jerusalem-Ramallah area are committed to specific practices of political resistance to Israeli occupation and recognition of Palestinian institutions. These practices have led not only to a specific political geography of diplomacy, but also to a community of practice, composed of European diplomats and based on their daily experience of resisting occupation and bestowing recognition. It is this group of officials who represent and actively "do" Europe's position and under occupation.
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