Winds of Change: The Europeanization of National Foreign Policy

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Maastricht European Studies Papers 2007/01 Bennet Strang thereof will be provided. The reader, thus, gets an impression of the real-life repercussions Europeanization has on national foreign policy cultures, their ways of conduct and, finally, their transformation against the European backdrop. 2. At the Heart of Foreign Policy – Sovereignty “One of the most important analytical challenges for scholars of international relations is to identify different meanings of state, sovereignty and territory, and to understand their origins, comprehend their changes of meaning, analyze their interrelationships, and characterize their transformations” 1 In the undertaking of tracing the impact of Europeanization on foreign policy, the analytical emphasis must firstly be on the dynamic concept of sovereignty. Elaborating on its meaning, methodological linkages with foreign policy and the changes it underwent will provide the framework to position an analysis of the Europeanization of foreign policy. However, the very meaning of the concept of sovereignty has to be clarified first. Principally, the concept of sovereignty has been and still is a central and popular one in the international system, on top of which it is “…difficult to acquire – and to lose” (Hill, 2003, p. 31). Connected to the notions of authority, identity and territory (Biersteker, 2002), “…sovereignty means that a state enjoys political independence from other states” (Jackson/ Sørensen, 2003, p. 280). Being the promising guiding light of all nations seeking to brake away from colonial rule or dominant oppressors and aiming to establish a sovereign, i.e. independent, nation-state, the possession of sovereignty is synonymous with having had the power to acquire and maintain it (Hill, 2003). Likewise, the mentioning of sovereignty in a Westphalian sense took and continues to take place in one stroke of breath with reference to a state, just as you have to say B after you have said A (Biersteker, 2002). The ‘state’, however, is essentially a socially constructed concept (ibid). This gives rise to the question of how the concept of sovereignty will adapt to possible changes in the definition of a ‘state’, in the context of European integration and the intrusive forces of globalization. Unquestioningly, “…the possibility of change in the operational meaning of sovereignty…” (p. 162) exists, which is underlined by the continuously evolving connotations of the dynamic concepts of both sovereignty and state (ibid.; Jackson/ Sørensen, 2003). The explanatory scope of traditional realist state-centric approaches, however, does not account for such transformations (ibid.; Biersteker, 2002). Nevertheless, the fact that the Westphalian concept of sovereignty has undergone considerable change and currently continues to do so 1 (Biersteker, 2002, p. 157) 2
Maastricht European Studies Papers 2007/01 Bennet Strang under the impact of the supranational European integration process implies that theories on sovereignty should expand their focus and analytical scope. This would allow them to account for those forces which are at the heart of the change in the meanings of both state and sovereignty (ibid.). The latter has, anyways, never existed in a realist, ‘pure’ form, the reason for which is why some scholars refer to it as “…‘organized hypocrisy’…” (Krasner quoted in Biersteker, 2002, p. 161). States necessarily intervene in each other’s affairs in the process of mutual interaction, which in turn strictly speaking violates the key principle of sovereignty, i.e. the principle of non-intervention. Thus, it is interesting to see how the concept of sovereignty changes in the process of continuous interaction brought about by European integration. This idea of change has also been alluded to by the former UN Secretary General Ghali, who remarked that the “…‘the time for absolute and exclusive sovereignty…has passed’…” (quoted in Jackson/ Sørensen, 2003, p. 281). 2 Accordingly, the traditional state- centric conduct of foreign policy, which has always aimed at maintaining full state sovereignty, has increasingly acquired a European dimension. However, despite Kissinger’s 3 warning not to abandon the sovereign nation-state as long as there is no proven alternative in place yet, the EU member states ceded substantial parts of their sovereignty and thereby increasingly transformed this concept into a “…bargaining resource for a politics characterized by complex transnational networks’” (Keohane quoted in ibid. p. 283). In this process of European integration, foreign policy, at whose heart sovereignty is, has been subjected to the impact of EU institutions, norms and policy-making styles. As a result, foreign policy itself underwent considerable change. “There is a lively debate on the impact of Europeanization” (Radaelli, 2000, p. 10). Departing from the assumption that sovereignty is essentially connected to a claim of authority 4 , the Europeanization challenge to foreign policy inherently represents such an issue-specific demand 5 (Biersteker, 2002). Considering that authority claims “…determine[] the change in the meaning of sovereignty…” (p. 168) and that states face other authority claims from (supranational) actors in the field of foreign policy, one has to ask further whether the Europeanization process gradually hollows out the sovereignty of EU member 2 Nevertheless, it is still the predominant principle of International Relations (IR) worldwide (Jackson/ Sørensen, 2003). 3 Henry A. Kissinger was National Security Advisor (1969-1975) and US Secretary of State (1973- 1977). 4 ‘Authority’ refers in this context to the institutionalized power of national foreign ministries in their conduct of foreign policy (Biersteker, 2002). 5 The impact of Europeanization on foreign policy will be elaborated upon in the following parts of the paper. 3
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