International Relations Theory and the Rise of European Foreign and Security Policy

Bibliographic Data

ID8042840
AuthorsUlrich Krotz (0000-0002-8858-6071, Harvard University), Richard Maher (0000-0002-3391-7224)
Year2011
Volume63
Issue3
Pages548-579
Publication date2011-07-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueWorld Politics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0043-8871 • E-ISSN: 1086-3338
PublisherProject MUSE (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1017/s0043887111000141
OpenAlexW2153257434
LanguageEN
Citations received22
References cited60

The historical rise of European foreign, security, and defense policy marks an important development in European politics and world politics more broadly. Long thought unlikely to amount to much, European integration in the domains of traditional “high politics” has consolidated bit by bit since the mid-1990s, under the auspices of a common foreign and security policy (CFSP) and a pan-European security and defense policy (ESDP). Accordingly, European affairs in these areas have attracted increased scholarly interest. In a variety of books as well as journal articles, scholars from diverse theoretical and intellectual backgrounds have argued that European integration in these policy areas has gained considerable substance—while offering very different causal accounts for why this has occurred. These different theoretical and empirical investigations together produce a new field of study with its own research questions, vocabulary, and search for causal explanations. IR theory is now engaging fully with European integration studies and vice versa. Paradoxically, this takes place in precisely those policy areas in which European integration had long been the weakest and least developed. This article explores and evaluates this new literature that analyzes why, compared with even the very recent past, a European foreign and security policy has emerged and apparently solidified

Economics · European integration · European studies · European union · Feature integration theory · Foreign policy · Foreign policy analysis · Foreign relations · International relations · International relations theory · International trade · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Security policy · Security studies · Sociology · Transatlantic relations · European Union Policy and Governance · International Relations and Foreign Policy · Law · Political Influence and Corporate Strategies · Public Administration