Abstract
The idea of the European Union being increasingly contested, whether globally or at home, is a frequently reiterated notion. It is believed that such challenges to the European integration stem from a number of diverse but interlinked global and intra-EU crises that, combined, amount to the current ‘perfect storm’ affecting the EU and its foreign, security and defense policy. We will explore here how the EU is being put to the test in terms of the norms and fundamental values which guide its foreign policy. It is an important issue within the broader debates of the European crises, as such norm contestation may have a deeper structural and longer-term effect on the EU’s external action and its ‘resilience’ as an international actor. We employ insights from the norm contestation literature to scrutinize a number of the most important current challenges articulated against EU foreign policy norms in recent years, whether at the global, ‘glocal’ or intra-EU level.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
However, we leave it up to each of the contributors to pursue their own ontological and epistemological take on norms.
- 2.
In the vertical dimension of the grid, Wiener (2016) also furthermore explores and theorizes on the norms’ moral reach (wide, medium, narrow) and degree of contestation (high, medium, low).
References
Acharya, A. (2017). After liberal hegemony: The advent of a multiplex world order. Ethics & International Affairs, 31(3), 271–285.
Angelucci, D., & Isernia, P. (2019). Politicization and security policy: Parties, voters and the European Common Security and Defense Policy. European Union Politics, June 2 online first.
Badescu, C. G., & Weiss, T. G. (2010). Misrepresenting R2P and advancing norms: An alternative spiral? International Studies Perspectives, 11(4), 354–374.
Barbé, E., Costa, O., & Kissack, R. (Eds.). (2016). EU policy responses to a shifting multilateral system. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Barbé, E., & Johansson-Nogués, E. (2001). EU and conflict prevention. Working Papers OBS, (8).
Barbé, E., & Johansson-Nogués, E. (2010). Assuming responsibility in the changing dynamics of security? The European Security Strategy and the EU as a security actor beyond its borders. In: D. Bigo et al. (Eds.), Europe’s 21st century challenge: Delivering liberty and security (pp. 65–80). Farnham, UK: Ashgate.
Barbé, E., & Morillas, P. (2019). The EU global strategy: The dynamics of a more politicized and politically integrated foreign policy. Cambridge Review of International Affairs, 1–18.
Bloomfield, A., & Scott, S. (Eds.). (2017). Norm antipreneurs and the politics of resistance to global normative change. Oxon: Routledge.
Bornschier, S. (2010). The new cultural divide and the two-dimensional political space in Western Europe. West European Politics, 33(3), 419–444.
Buzan, B., & Lawson, G. (2015). The global transformation: History, modernity and the making of international relations (Vol. 135). Cambridge: CUP.
Costa, O. (2018). The politicization of EU external relations. Journal of European Public Policy, on-line first.
Cox, R. W. (1999). Civil society at the turn of the millenium: Prospects for an alternative world order. Review of international studies, 25(1), 3–28.
Dahl, R. A. (1971). Poliarchy: Participation and opposition. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Deitelhoff, N., & Zimmermann, L. (2013). Things we lost in the fire: How different types of contestation affect the validity of international norms. (PRIF Working Papers, 18). Frankfurt am Main: HessischeStiftung Friedens- und Konfliktforschung.
Dinan, D., Nugent, N., & Paterson, W. E. (2017). The European Union in crisis. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
EEAS. (2019). Speech on rethinking Europe by high representative/vice-president Federica Mogherini at the celebrations for Helmut Schmidt’s 100th anniversary of birth, Hamburg. UNIQUE ID: 190223_1, 23 February.
Epstein, C. (2012). Stop telling us how to behave: Socialization or infantilization?’. International Studies Perspectives, 13(2), 135–145.
EUGS. (2016). Shared vision, common action: A stronger Europe. A global strategy for the European Union’s Foreign and Security policy. Brussels: European External Action Service.
European Council. (2017). “United we stand, divided we fall”: Letter by President Donald Tusk to the 27 EU heads of state or government on the future of the EU before the Malta summit, Press release 31 January.
Finnemore, M., & Sikkink, K. (1998). International norm dynamics and political change. International Organization, 52(4), 887–917.
Foucault, M. (1994. Dits et écrits. 1954–1988 (4 vols). Paris: Gallimard.
Grande, E., & Kriesi, H. (2015). The restructuring of political conflict in Europe and the politicization of European integration. In T. Risse (Ed.), European public spheres. Politics is back (pp. 190–226). Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.
Gross, E., & Juncos, A. E. (Eds.). (2010). EU conflict prevention and crisis management: Roles, institutions, and policies. Routledge.
Habermas, J. (1991). Citizenship and national identity: Some reflections on the future of Europe. Praxis International, 12(1), 1–19.
Hegeman, U., & Scheneckener, U. (2019). Politicising European security: From technocratic to contentious politics? European Security, Published on line 30 May.
Ikenberry, G. J. (2011). The future of the liberal world order: Internationalism after America. Foreign Affairs, 56–68.
Ikenberry, G. J. (2013). The Liberal International Order and Its Discontents. In After Liberalism? (pp. 91–102). London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Johansson-Nogués, E. (2018). The EU’s ontological (in) security: Stabilising the ENP area… and the EU-self? Cooperation and Conflict, 53(4), 528–544.
Krook, M. L., & True, J. (2012). Rethinking the life cycles of international norms: The United Nations and the global promotion of gender equality. European Journal of international Relations, 18(1), 103–127.
Manners, I. A. (2008). The normative ethics of the European Union. International Affairs, 84(1), 45–60.
Marks, G., & Hooghe, L. (2004). Does identity or economic rationality drive public opinion on European integration? PS: Political Science and Politics, 37(3), 415–420.
Milliken, J. (1999). The study of discourse in international relations: A critique of research and methods. European Journal of International Relations, 5(2), 225–254.
Müller, P. (2016). EU foreign policy: No major breakthrough despite multiple crises. Journal of European Integration, 38(3), 359–374.
Natorski, M. (2011). The European Union peacebuilding approach: Governance and practices of the instrument of stability (vol. 111, p. 37). PRIF.
Newman, E., Thakur, R., & Tirman, J. (Eds.). (2006). Multilateralism under Challenge: Power. International Order and Structural Change: Tokyo, United Nations University Press.
Rosamond, B. (2019). Brexit and the politics of UK growth models. New Political Economy, 24(3), 408–421.
Sandholtz, W., & Stiles, K. W. (2008). Explaining international norm change. International Norms and Cycles of Change, 1–26.
Sjursen, H. (2015). Normative theory: An untapped resource in the study of European foreign policy. The Sage handbook of European foreign policy, 197–214.
Tully, J. (2002). The unfreedom of the moderns in comparison to their ideals of constitutionalism and democracy. Modern Law Review, 65(2), 204–228.
Wæver, O. (2018). A Post-Western Europe: Strange Identities in a Less Liberal World Order. Ethics & International Affairs, 32(1), 75–88.
Wiener, A. (2008). The Invisible Constitution of Politics: Contested Norms and International Encounters. Cambridge University Press.
Wiener, A. (2014). Theory of contestation. Heidelberg: Springer.
Wiener, Antje. (2016). Contested norms in inter-national encounters: The ‘turbot war’ as a prelude to fairer fisheries governance. Politics and Governance, 4(3), 20–36.
Wiener, A. (2017). A theory of contestation—A concise summary of its argument and concepts. Polity, 49(1), 109–125.
Youngs, R. (2018). Europe reset. New directions for the EU. London, United Kingdom: I. B. Tauris.
Zürn, M., Binder, M., & Ecker-Ehrhardt, M. (2012). International authority and its politicization. International Theory, 4(1), 69–106.
Acknowledgements
Elisabeth Johansson-Nogués wishes to acknowledge VISIONS (Visions and practices of geopolitics in the European Union and its neighborhood) funded by the National R + D Plan of the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (CSO2017-82622-P).
Martijn C. Vlaskamp thanks the Beatriu de Pinós postdoctoral program of the Government of Catalonia’s Secretariat for Universities and Research (Ministry of Economy and Knowledge) for funding (Grant number: 2017-BP-152).
Esther Barbé is grateful to the Catalan Agency for Management of University and Research Grants (AGAUR) for funds making this research possible (2017 SGR 693).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Johansson-Nogués, E., Vlaskamp, M.C., Barbé, E. (2020). EU Foreign Policy and Norm Contestation in an Eroding Western and Intra-EU Liberal Order. In: Johansson-Nogués, E., Vlaskamp, M., Barbé, E. (eds) European Union Contested. Norm Research in International Relations. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-33238-9_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-33238-9_1
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-33237-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-33238-9
eBook Packages: Political Science and International StudiesPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)