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Theoretical Perspectives
applicable theories, built purposefully to and the identity of academics who self-
guide empirical inquiry. Thus the purpose identify as belonging to a given discipline’
of the following chapters is twofold: briefly (Turton 2013: 236). According to this defini-
introducing available theories, thereby pre- tion, Political Science, European Studies and
senting an account of the state of the art of the- International Relations can all be considered
orizing, and critically reviewing the studies in disciplines within the broader frameworks of
which theories have been applied and knowl- either the social sciences or the humanities.
edge about European foreign affairs has been In the following brief account the eight theo-
produced, potentially enriching theoretical retical perspectives are situated in and around
knowledge. In this fashion the chapters dem- the three disciplines.
onstrate both the value of theory-informed Being substantive theoretical traditions,
analysis and highlight cumulative knowledge both liberalism and realism are most at home in
and progress in theory-informed research on International Relations (Zacker and Matthew
European foreign policy. 1995; Donnelly 2000), though liberalism also
has a home or an annex in European Studies.
By contrast, realism is basically a stranger to
European Studies and instead is at home in
Disciplinary homes great-power politics. Constructivism is fore-
most characterized by specific methodologi-
In rough terms the eight theoretical perspec- cal commitments and can thus be mixed with
tives have three main disciplinary homes (see a range of, if not all, substantive international
Figure 5.1), although shared features and theory traditions. The nature of constructiv-
intertwining attributes suggest less than ism makes it essentially transdisciplinary but,
clear-cut lines of demarcation. in the present context, it makes sense to claim
Academic disciplines can be defined in that constructivism emerged in International
various ways. In the present context I draw Relations (Onuf 1989; Wendt 1992) and
on Helen Turton’s thought-provoking defini- was subsequently imported to European
tion, ‘What constitutes a discipline… are the Studies (Christiansen et al. 2001; Checkel
institutions, discourses, professionalization 2007). Most theories of European integration,
4
1 2
6 5
Political Science
To every solution there is a problem and I will use the Europeanization literature as an
the employment of theory is not an excep- illustrative example.
tion. Theorizing can easily become a double- Research on processes of Europeanization
edged sword. While theories can be seen as has evolved within three clusters of schol-
coloured lenses through which we observe arship. The first cluster of Europeanization
the world around us, it is also the case that if studies focuses on the degree to which com-
we look at European foreign policy through petences and capacities are elevated from the
some of the lenses it is unlikely we will see national to the European level, eventually
anything. The entire field is denied existence constituting a Euro polity both generally and
or significance or claimed to be epiphenom- within the area of foreign relations. As ever
enal to other factors of superior explanatory new issue areas are added to the policy port-
power. Realists tend to deny the existence folio and old issues often require reproduc-
of European foreign policy or explain it by tion; it is a cluster that continuously expands.
reference to the interests of the three larger The second cluster includes contributions
member states or, alternatively, explain it by that come in different shades of outside-in
means of the single operational factor that is perspectives, thus representing a European
available in the (neo-)realist theoretical rep- Studies version of the second-image-reversed
ertoire: balance-of-power logics (Eilstrup perspective within IR (Gourevitch 1978; see
Sangiovanni 2003; but see Posen 2004). also Costa and Jørgensen 2012). The second
Furthermore, the process of making policy cluster of Europeanization studies examines
hinges on two-way interactions between the different ways in which the establishment
member states (governments) and the EU. of a Euro polity has an impact on national pol-
However, many theories do not allow such icymaking processes and domestic (national)
complexity and downplay one of the direc- institutions. Within this cluster there are
tions of impact. Theories of multi-level two main schools of thought. The conver-
governance merely provide typologies, and gence school examines the conditions under
intergovernmentalism has difficulties seeing which convergence of diverse national for-
the wood (EU) for the trees (member states’ eign policies is expected, whereas the diver-
governments). Finally, it is a general problem sity school examines the conditions under
that simplification unavoidably causes bias. which national actors have considerable
Thus, it is well known that analytical dis- room for manoeuvre, thus expecting diverse
tinctions are bound to downplay differences responses to common pressures from above.
within a category and exaggerate differences Such causal processes seem to characterize
between categories. foreign policy as much as other public poli-
cies (Tonra 2001), but the Europeanization
of foreign policy has been much less studied
than the Europeanization of other public poli-
Situating theoretical cies, leaving an abundance of space for rich
perspectives speculation about the enduring nature of pure
national foreign policies untainted by any
The task of situating theoretical perspectives European impulse.
implies a process that provides overview, In the third cluster of Europeanization
connects theoretical endeavours, including studies analysts examine accession
their methodological underpinnings, and Europeanization, i.e. the degree to which
enables two-way communication between and the conditions under which candidate
research in different fields of study, i.e. both countries through their preparations for
‘draws on’ and ‘feeds back to’, e.g. rational membership become Europeanized (Güney
institutionalism in Political Science. Rather and Tekin 2014). Other studies extend the
than situate all the theoretical perspectives, research agenda even further by focusing
competitive, and has consequently been char- studies informed by interpretive theory. The
acterized as a ‘trading state’ (Smith 2004; see argument is that without interpretation texts
also Rosecrance 1986). The EU’s objective become either meaningless or letters not
in foreign economic relations is to extend opened (Ball 1995; Diez 2011). Analysts can
global trade rules to all major traders, hence choose between different strategies of inter-
the keen interest of the EU in welcoming, for pretation. Some are keen to understand the
instance, Taiwan, China and Russia as mem- original intent of author(s) or the context in
bers of the WTO. which a text originally appeared. Others have
This does not necessarily make the EU a an interest in the reception of a given text, thus
liberal internationalist actor (but see Youngs resulting in audience-focused studies. Within
2011). Yet it does suggest that the political– this school analysts ask, for instance, what the
ideological liberal internationalist tradition original intent of the author(s) of the European
in Europe is sufficiently strong to have a sig- Security Strategy (European Council 2003)
nificant impact on the direction of European was and what the key characteristics of the
foreign policy. However, liberal internation- context in which it appeared were (e.g. the
alists are always in fierce competition with row over the Iraq War and the tradition of pro-
representatives from other foreign-policy ducing US national security strategies). The
traditions, making the ever changing con- audience of the short text called the European
figuration of foreign-policy traditions one of Security Strategy includes two primary seg-
the keys to understanding the dynamics of the ments: while the media have largely ignored
politics of European foreign policy (see Part the strategy, academics and civil servants in
X of the Handbook). ministries of foreign affairs have paid some
attention. Academics have thoroughly anal-
ysed the strategy (Biscop 2005) or parts of it
(Jørgensen and Laatikainen 2012; Drieskens
Kinds of theory and van Schaik 2014), whereas some of the
latter have been inspired to produce national
If theories are lenses through which we security strategies (France, Germany and
observe the world it is important to empha- the UK), thus producing either yet another
size that theories come in different colours. case of Europeanization of foreign policy or,
Some are explanatory, i.e. trade in causal alternatively, renationaliziation of a security
explanation and analysis. The key feature of strategy that had a brief existence at the
this kind of theory is the distinction between European level.
independent, dependent and intervening vari- The third kind of theory is normative
ables, a distinction around which an entire theory, conventionally characterized by a
specialized vocabulary and distinct research distinction between those who engage in
designs have been created. Seemingly general outlining how states of affairs ought to be
theoretical accounts are often accounts exclu- and those who concentrate on the norma-
sively of causal theory (Van Evera 1997; tive superstructure that underpins both poli-
Mearsheimer and Walt 2013; Parsons 2007). tics and policies (Nardin 2006; Weir 1992;
The second kind of theory is interpre- Lucarelli and Manners 2006; Schumaker
tive theory. Theories within this category 2008). The latter group has a well developed
enable rigorous analysis of meanings and interest in understanding the general norms
understandings – for instance, the meaning and principles that guide the EU’s interna-
of sovereignty (Brown 2002), international tional policies, be it policies on development,
recognition and the Responsibility to Protect environment or non-proliferation.
principle (Nardin 2006). What explanatory The three kinds of theory have their spe-
theorists and analysts tend to take as given cific standards of scholarship, their dis-
is exposed to comprehensive analysis in tinct avenues of inquiry point in different
directions and comparisons are often more liberalism Robert Keohane (1989) provides
misleading than informative, sometimes an excellent illustrative example of such
reduced simply to deploring that cats do not abandonment, thereby highlighting why there
bark. In research on European foreign policy is a good reason to label his theoretical per-
the three kinds of theory have been unevenly spective neoliberal institutionalism. A second
employed. Normative theory seems to be the illustrative example is provided by Martin
kind of theory that has attracted the smallest Wight and Hedley Bull, who felt it necessary
number of studies (see Chapter 11), whereas to initiate the international society tradition
the balance between explanatory and inter- (i.e. the English School), thereby (partly)
pretive theory is fairly even, the latter focus- abandoning both the realist and liberal theo-
ing on conceptualization as a first (and often retical traditions (Dunne 1998; Buzan 2001).
last) step towards interpretation. They simply shared the idea that realist and
liberal perspectives are insufficient to repre-
sent the complexity of world politics. Finally,
for every single theory there is the endur-
Structuring theoretical ing risk of ending up as orthodoxy or ideol-
interventions ogy, thereby losing their analytical qualities.
Being concentrates of knowledge of global
In the eight chapters of Part II the contribu- and European affairs, theories cannot escape
tors first outline the key characteristics of a their existence between dogma and tools for
theoretical perspective or tradition. These analytical guidance. Ideally, research within
outlines will typically include both ‘common a field of study should contribute to the
threads and divergent strands’, to use Mark refinement and advancement of theoretical
Zacker and Richard Matthew’s (1995) excel- perspectives.
lent title and their outline of strands of liberal Last but not least, the contributors review
international theory. The distinction between the literature in which specific theories within
tradition, strand and applicable theory is theoretical traditions have been applied in
highly important, not only because we are research on European foreign policy. In
dealing with different levels of abstraction other words, they examine how the dynam-
but also because when we come to the issue ics of research agendas have evolved over
of research agenda and concrete theory- time: which questions have the theoretical
informed studies it is mainly first-order perspectives prompted analysts to ask and
applicable theory that is relevant. Due to which answers has research provided? In this
their broad-brush and blunt characteristics context it is important to highlight specific
traditions and strands are largely unsuitable emphases, blank spots and enduring analyti-
for empirical guidance yet very useful for cal challenges. Such questions enable us to
orientation purposes. identify the profile of research that a given
Moreover, the contributors point out major theoretical perspective has been capable of
theoretical advances – that is, if there is any generating.
worth reporting (Waltz 1990). The reason
for addressing this issue is very simple: if a
theoretical perspective does not renew itself
from time to time it risks losing traction, a Note
fate experienced by realism during the last
two decades and within European Studies 1 Research on intergovernmental decision-making
at all times (Legro and Moravcsik 1999). procedures within parts of European foreign pol-
icy or a focus on the role of the foreign policies
Similarly, innovation often implies that of EU member states is rarely informed by real-
older strands are bound to be abandoned. In ist theory. Some of it is explicitly liberal in nature
his rejection of republican and commerce (Moravcsik 1998) and studies do in general not
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