Kristin M. Haugevik

The EU’s Performance with and within NATO: Assessing Objectives, Outcomes and Organisational Practices

Abstract This article assesses the EU’s performance as a security actor in the context of NATO, both at the institutional level and when acting as a bloc of member states within NATO. Informed by a definition of ‘performance’ as the ability to achieve preset objectives (effectiveness) in an efficient, relevant and viable manner, we observe that the EU’s performance in the context of NATO remains limited. This could be seen as a reflection of underlying political divergences between the two organisations, hampering systematic and formalised intra-institutional cooperation as well as effective cooperation between the EU member states in NATO. More importantly, it has resulted in the emergence of more informal and ad hoc EU practices in the context of NATO as well as parallel EU and NATO practices.

Autonomy or integration? Small-state responses to a changing European security landscape

ABSTRACT In this special issue, we examine whether there is a pattern in how small European states, inside and outside of the European Union (EU), adapt and adjust to EU foreign and security policy. We assess selected European small states’ room for manoeuvre within these fields, and within EU institutional structures more broadly, as part of everyday diplomatic interactions in Brussels and in the context of the rotating EU presidency. As the European integration process enters a new phase, possibly marked by a trend of more differentiated integration and flexibility of individual attachments, small states will continue to face the choice between formal autonomy and integration, and between de facto hesitance and adaptability. With Brexit, the remaining large states may become more influential, but small states will collectively have a majority of the votes and total population. Perhaps the coming era of European integration will become the era of small states.

Parental Child Abduction and the State: Identity, Diplomacy and the Duty of Care

States alternate between the roles of ‘caretaker’ and ‘rescuer’ when providing care to citizens abroad. This article suggests that they are more likely to assume the ‘rescuer’ role when core values underpinning their self-identity are at stake. This dynamic is explored by examining a case where a Norwegian mother re-abducted her two children from Morocco. In the process, Norway’s foreign minister authorized shielding the children at the Norwegian Embassy in Rabat, citing ‘Norway’s duty to protect two Norwegian minors in fear of their lives’. A diplomatic conflict between Norway and Morocco followed. The Norwegian response must be seen in light of Norway’s self-identity as a frontrunner for children’s rights. Ultimately, helping the children ‘had’ to trump concerns about diplomatic costs. The broader dilemmas that this case exemplifies should be relevant also to other cases where a state’s concern for a child citizen is pitted against its obligation to diplomatic conventions.