Netherlands Institute of Government

Panel 5: European Foreign Policy: 10 years after the Treaty of Amsterdam

Organizers:
Hylke Dijkstra (h.dijkstra@remove-this.politics.unimaas.nl)
Prof. Dr. Sophie Vanhoonacker (s.vanhoonacker@remove-this.politics.unimaas.nl)
Maastricht University
Department of Political Science
P.O. Box 616
6200 MD Maastricht

The entry into force of the Treaty of Amsterdam and the parallel Cologne European Council (spring 1999) marked a milestone in the history of European foreign policy. In Amsterdam the member states created the political position of the EU High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) and they established of a whole range of analytical supporting foreign policy bodies. During the Cologne European Council, they launched the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP). These developments dramatically changed the conduct of European foreign policy. Whereas before 1999, CFSP was mainly a declaratory exercise, it now also gained an operational dimension. Becoming active in the field of crisis management, the EU  engaged in civilian and military operations, not only nearby in the Balkans but also in Africa and the Far East. This panel aims to take stock of the last ten years of European foreign policy, look at the empirical and theoretical state of the art and discuss the major challenges for the (near) future.

For the purpose of this panel, European foreign policy is broadly defined as the sum of what the EU and its member states do in international relations (cf. Hill 1998). It seeks contributions of scholars working in the field of security and defence as well as scholars analyzing the European neighbourhood or the EU’s trade and development policies. The conveners of this panel are interested both in conceptual, theoretical and methodological papers as well as in descriptive (comparative) case studies. Such a diverse collection of papers will provide valuable insights into the comprehensiveness of European foreign policy.

Papers in this panel could, in particular, address the following topics:

• Evaluation of European foreign policy in terms of successes, failures and lessons learnt over the last ten years;
• Institutional developments which have taken place over the last ten years;
• Coherence of European foreign policy
• Development of foreign policy capabilities over the last ten years;The impact of enlargement on the conduct of European foreign policy;
• Actorness of the European Union in international relations;
• European foreign policy with or without the Lisbon Treaty.

For questions on this panel – such as the suitability of particular paper proposals – please contact Hylke Dijkstra (h.dijkstra@remove-this.politics.unimaas.nl).

Connection to NIG sub-research theme: Beyond the Nation-State

When it comes to issues such as foreign, security and defence policy, states are generally seen as the key actors in international relations. For a long time, scholars within the discipline of international relations could discount the activities taking place in the context of European foreign policy as of little actual relevance. With European foreign policy, however, becoming ever more important – partially as a result of the Amsterdam Treaty and the Cologne European Council – such a view becomes increasingly difficult to uphold. European foreign policy, in this respect, presents a challenge to the traditional notion of the nation-state and to the state-centered approaches in international relations.