Daniel C. Thomas

Still Punching Below its Weight? Coherence and Effectiveness in European Union Foreign Policy

Although scholars and practitioners have long argued that greater political coherence will make the EU a more effective international actor, the relationship between coherence and effectiveness has not been well defined or tested. This paper defines the two concepts, proposes three hypotheses regarding the relationship between them, and examines the extent and consequences of EU coherence on an issue that the EU has highlighted as essential to its foreign policy mission - the good functioning of the International Criminal Court (ICC). It finds that the EU exhibited considerable coherence in its response to the U.S. campaign for ICC ‘non-surrender agreements,’ yet failed in its effort to shape the behaviour of other states. In conclusion, the paper considers the implications of this case study for the EU’s role in world affairs and for future research in this area.

Constitutionalization through enlargement: the contested origins of the EU's democratic identity

ABSTRACT This article demonstrates that the constitutionalization of the EU began with a political struggle to set the rules by which the community would respond to applications for membership. By mobilizing to block Spains association with the EEC in 1962, European parliamentarians, trade unionists, and others who believed that democratic and human rights principles should be institutionalized within the community established an informal rule governing the communitys policy practice that laid the groundwork for the subsequent constitutionalization of democratic and human rights principles within the communitys treaties and jurisprudence. It demonstrates the critical contribution to the political construction of Europe made by non-state actors willing to challenge the preferences of member state governments and shows that otherwise weak actors are significantly empowered when they are able to identify their preferences with pre-existing domestic and international norms.

Negotiation theory and the EU: the state of the art

The once-distinct literatures on European Union politics and negotiation theory are increasingly interlinked, with each drawing upon and contributing to the other. This collection aims to stimulate even more, and more systematic, research on negotiations in the EU. In particular, it presents a state of the art of the literature at the intersection of these two fields by identifying areas of considerable research progress and by proposing a set of questions that require further research. In the introduction, we elaborate the rationale of this volume and introduce the various contributions.

Human Rights Ideas, the Demise of Communism, and the End of the Cold War

This article analyzes the role of human-rights ideas in the collapse of Communism. The demise of Communist rule in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union was significantly influenced by the transnational diffusion of humanrights ideas. The analysis focuses on how human-rights norms were transmitted to Soviet dissidents and policymakers. The article also considers precisely how, and how much, these norms affected policy. The two primary causal mechanisms were the transmission of these ideas by a transnational Eastern European social movement for human rights, which expanded the roster of available political concepts and the terms of political legitimacy, and the mechanism of rhetorical entrapment whereby Soviet leaders became trapped or constrained to uphold their rhetorical commitment to the Helsinki Accords by the expanding discourse of human rights. Subsequently, Soviet leaders accepted human rights ideas for both substantive and instrumental reasons. Western power played some role, but the ideas themselves were salient, legitimate, and resonant for Soviet leaders seeking a new identity and destiny for the Soviet Union.

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

The strengthened Office of the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and the new External Action Service (EAS) presuppose a set of interests and/or values that the 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 paper 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 socialisation, Europeanisation and collective identity formation. The paper identifies the logics of each model and notes their implications for the role of the EU’s new foreign policy institutions.

Beyond identity: Membership norms and regional organization

What is a region and how can we best understand a state’s eligibility for membership in a regional political community? Scholars have sought to answer these questions in terms of geographic proximity and social-psychological identity, but neither concept can accommodate the contestation and change that characterize the social construction of regions. Instead, this article argues that the limits of regions are defined within regional organizations by member states’ governments plus supranational actors deliberating over a common definition of the characteristics that members and potential members are expected to share. The concept of membership norms thus offers powerful insights into how regional communities define who is eligible for membership, how these definitions change over time and the incentives they create for those seeking to promote or block an applicant state. The evolution of the European Union’s membership norms since the 1950s illustrates this argument.

EU Policy on the International Criminal Court: Institutional Contexts and Policy Compromises

One of the most politically sensitive issues on the European Union’s foreign policy agenda in recent years has been the question of how to respond to the United States’ campaign for immunity from the International Criminal Court (ICC). When the US government set out in early 2002 to shield its officials, citizens and other employees from the jurisdiction of the new Court, the European Union (EU) and its member states were forced to weigh their oft-stated commitment to an international order based upon multilateral institutions, the rule of law, and respect for human rights, which underlay their commitment to the ICC, against their commitment to maintaining good relations with world’s only superpower, with which they share many common interests, similar political values, and a long history of cooperation. Given these stakes, it is not surprising that EU member states did not see eye-to-eye on how to respond to the US effort: some thought it deserved a cooperative response while others considered it an unacceptable assault on the integrity of the Court. These differences were evident in negotiations among member states in both forums where they encountered the US campaign for ICC immunity — within the United Nations (UN) and in bilateral relations with Washington.