The European Union’s Multi-Level Cultural Diplomacy vis-à-vis the United States of America. Working Paper Series W-2018/7

This paper examines how, to what extent and why the EU engages in cultural diplomacy vis-à-vis the US. While providing an empirical review of and conceptual reflection on the current state of the EU’s (including key member states’) efforts at employing cultural diplomacy vis-à-vis the US, the paper also strives to explain the forms of this activity. It argues that a multi-level EU cultural diplomacy in the US does exist, but that its potential is currently underused. As could be expected, the EU Delegation to the US seems to be most willing to pursue EU cultural diplomacy, whereas the extent of EU cultural diplomacy at the level of coordinated activities between the EU and the member states, as well as at the member state level remains low. This finding can be explained primarily with a latent competition between member states. While the general motivation to engage in cultural diplomacy can be interest- or value-driven – and is in the case of EU cultural diplomacy vis-à-vis the US arguably both –, it is undeniable that, in a country like the US, the interest-driven soft power competition that is often a key incentive for actors to engage in cultural diplomacy activities at all plays out negatively inside the EU. These findings are corroborated by a brief discussion of the potential acceptance of EU cultural action in the US, which highlights how, despite positive perceptions of European culture as such, the EU is hardly recognized as an actor in the field of culture

The European Union’s Strategic Turn in Climate Diplomacy: ‘Multiple Bilateralism’ with Major Emitters. College of Europe EU Diplomacy Paper 4/2021.

Since the early 2010s, the climate diplomacy of the European Union (EU) has undergone considerable changes. Traditionally relying on a ‘leadership-by-example’ approach primarily concerned with the external projection of its domestic policies, the EU profoundly adapted its climate diplomacy strategy between the 2009 conference of the parties (COP) 15 in Copenhagen and the 2015 Paris COP 21. This redefined strategy was further consolidated in the aftermath of the Paris COP. Key features of the EU’s redesigned climate diplomacy are its focus on stronger – cooperative and/or confrontational – bilateral relations with major emitters and a greater flexibility in its positions and actions. To better understand and explain this strategic turn, the paper provides a comparative analysis of the EU’s climate diplomacy vis-à-vis the three major emitters China, the United States and India during the negotiations on the Copenhagen Accord (2005-2009), on the Paris Agreement (2010-2015) and on the implementation of the Paris Agreement (2016-2020). It argues that the EU has embraced a strategy of ‘multiple bilateralism’, which aims to develop parallel bilateral relationships within the broader context of a multilateral negotiation setting. The Union’s strategic turn can be explained by the opening of a policy window resulting from the interplay between the changing geopolitics of climate change and conducive institutional developments within the EU, which was exploited by EU policy entrepreneurs. This turn enabled the EU to co-create a negotiation environment that facilitated the convergence of major emitters’ positions in the global climate negotiations at Paris. Sustaining such an enabling environment thus represents a fundamental prerequisite for the successful implementation of the Paris Agreement

European Union Foreign Policy and the Global Climate Regime

This book engages in a longitudinal analysis of the EU’s participation in and impact on the global climate change regime, providing a thought-provoking audit of the potential and limits of the EU’s influence as a foreign policy player in a major domain of global affairs

Richard D. Grint v. Trimco Molding and/or Argonaut Insurance Company, and Utah Labor Commission : Reply Brief

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Understanding European Union science diplomacy

In recent decades, a great deal of attention has focused on the EU's attempts to exert influence on the global stage, but one area which has received relatively little attention is the issue of so-called 'science diplomacy'. Alea López de San Román and Simon Schunz provide a detailed overview of what science diplomacy entails, and how the EU is increasingly ..

The EU talks big on protecting the Arctic, but it continues to prioritise economic interests over the environment

The Arctic is one of the world’s most environmentally fragile regions, but it also offers substantial economic opportunities. This has led many states and companies with an interest in the region to promote a policy of ‘sustainable development’ which can balance these opportunities with environmental protection. Sofía López, Bram De Botselier and Simon Schunz argue that while the EU has articulated support for protecting the region, its commitment to pursuing economic interests under the guise of sustainable development should be reassessed given the rapidly deteriorating Arctic environment

The EU talks big on protecting the Arctic under the guise of ‘sustainable development’

Half a millennium ago, the myth of a lost city of gold drove scores of Europeans to the Americas in search of wealth. Today, images of a new ‘El Dorado’ with fathomless (energy) resources are attracting players from all over the world to a very different place: the Arctic. Driven by the prospect of economic, primarily energy-related opportunities, a myriad of national governments – from Arctic (Canada) to non-Arctic (China) states – and companies are trying to establish a foothold in an extremely fragile region that is key to the Earth’s environmental and climatic system

Addressing the ‘Arctic Paradox’: Environmental Policy Integration in the European Union’s Emerging Arctic Policy. EU Diplomacy Paper 03/2018

The Arctic has increasingly become the subject of strategic debates, prompting numerous actors – including the European Union (EU) – to develop Arctic strategies. Importantly, these strategies need to address the ‘Arctic paradox’, that is, the trade-off between pursuing the economic opportunities arising from an increasingly ice-free Arctic and preventing environmental degradation in a region of central importance for the global climate. This paper investigates how the EU has positioned itself in this respect by asking to what extent its emerging Arctic policy has integrated environmental concerns. To do so, it initially conducts a discourse analysis of Arctic strategies of the EU institutions, Arctic and major non-Arctic EU member states. It finds that these three groups each form a ‘discourse coalition’ advocating for strong, weak and moderate environmental policy integration (EPI) in the EU’s Arctic policy respectively. A probe into the Arctic policy practice of typical representatives of these coalitions shows that a multi-level pattern exists which combines an EU-level pro-EPI discourse and action and varying member state-level commitments to EPI. The paper concludes by arguing that the Arctic policy at the EU level is currently ‘green by omission’− avoiding contentious subjects in the discourse as well as in actions − and discusses the implications of this finding

In guter Verfassung? Europapolitik in wissenschaftlichen Fachzeitschriften, 2. Halbjahr 2003

Zwei Themen standen in der zweiten Hälfte des Jahres 2003 im Zentrum der Debatten über die Europäische Union (EU): die Beratungen über den vom Konvent zur Zukunft Europas vorgelegten Entwurf einer Europäischen Verfassung und die im Kontext der Irakkrise erneut aufgeworfene Frage nach den Beziehungen zwischen den USA und der EU. Beide spiegeln sich in den Herbst- und Winterausgaben der internationalen Fachzeitschriften. Während sich die Diskussion der »transatlantischen Beziehungen« darauf konzentriert, die Ursachen, Fehlperzeptionen und konzeptionellen Widersprüche der Irakkrise innereuropäisch und transatlantisch zu analysieren, stehen bei der Debatte über die Reformbemühungen im Rahmen des EU-Verfassungsprozesses institutionelle, demokratiepolitische und machtpolitische Fragen im Vordergrund. (Autorenreferat

Expanding actorness to explain EU External engagement in originally internal policy areas

© 2018, © 2019 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. Despite its increasing importance for European integration, there remains a lack of scholarly attention to the growth of EU external action in originally internal policy areas. This article advances a comprehensive framework for understanding and explaining the emergence of EU external engagement in such areas. It combines insights from two sets of literatures: the EU external relations literature offers useful concepts–particularly ‘actorness’–as building blocks for explanatory purposes, while the public policy literature provides relevant insights regarding policy entrepreneurship and agenda-setting. The article contends that EU external engagement results from a favourable interplay between an external ‘opportunity’ and the EU’s ‘presence’ in a given domain, which is identified and capitalized upon by a set of policy entrepreneurs, who are driven by interest-based and/or ideational motives. To evaluate the salience of the framework, the article applies it across several policy areas.status: publishe