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Spanish Foreign Policy: Navigating Global Shifts and Domestic Crises

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Foreign Policy Change in Europe Since 1991

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Abstract

Spain’s foreign policy is often seen as the result of three structural changes: Europeanization, democratization and societal modernization. This contribution complements this assessment by analyzing the effects of three major international factors (the end of the Cold War, September 11 and the global financial crisis) and several mutually reinforcing crises (economic, political and territorial) on Spanish foreign policy. While there were no changes in the priorities of Spain’s foreign policy, there were noticeable variations when it comes to the capacity to act, the means and strategies to reach foreign policy goals and the preferred allies and partners. With noticeable exceptions, such as Aznar’s Atlanticist turn (1996–2004), continuity prevails, which is illustrated by Spain’s continuous desire to be recognized as a middle power; the priority it gives to European integration, Latin America and the Mediterranean; its active involvement in multilateral frameworks; and its concern for unresolved territorial disputes with Morocco and the United Kingdom. Rather than pointing to a single driver or a sole inhibitor of foreign policy change, the authors argue that the combination of domestic and global factors offers a more accurate picture of how Spain’s foreign policy has navigated global shifts and domestic crises since the end of the Cold War.

This chapter falls within the Observatory of European Foreign Policy research project (2017 SGR 693) funded by the Catalan Agency for Management of University and Research Grants (AGAUR) and within MEDRESET, a project funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Program for Research and Innovation under grant agreement no 693055.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Soria is the least populated province of Spain and is commonly used as a metaphor for rural Spain. The idea of “menos Siria and más Soria” is attributed to Jesús Posada, former president of the region of Castille and Leon and then Spanish parliamentarian, himself born in Soria.

  2. 2.

    Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Council Regulation (EC) No 539/2001 Council of the European Union Interinstitutional File: 2018/0390(COD). Available at: https://www.consilium.europa.eu/media/38044/st05960-en19.pdf.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra, Spain

    Eduard Soler i Lecha & Esther Barbé

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  1. Eduard Soler i Lecha
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  2. Esther Barbé
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Correspondence to Eduard Soler i Lecha .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Ghent Institute for International Studies, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium

    Jeroen K. Joly

  2. Ghent Institute for International Studies, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium

    Tim Haesebrouck

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Soler i Lecha, E., Barbé, E. (2021). Spanish Foreign Policy: Navigating Global Shifts and Domestic Crises. In: Joly, J.K., Haesebrouck, T. (eds) Foreign Policy Change in Europe Since 1991. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-68218-7_11

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