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Begin New Search Topic Foreign Policy Political Geography France Content Type Working Paper Publishing Institution Norwegian Institute of International Affairs

1. French foreign policy and the limits of Europeanisation

Author:
Pernille Rieker
Publication Date:
05-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Norwegian Institute of International Affairs
Abstract:
This article focuses on the changing French position on EU enlargement. The aim of the analysis is to study the interplay between the foreign policy of the EU and the foreign policy of France, but also between the official French foreign policy and the French public opinion. Most of the literature on EU enlargement underestimates the importance of public opinion. This article is therefore an attempt to present a more comprehensive understanding of the changing French position on enlargement by combining a top down with a bottom up approach. By doing this the analysis do not consider whether enlargement is good or bad, but rather how a member state's position on this issue may change both through a process of Europeanisation and as a result of changes in domestic public opinion.
Topic:
Foreign Policy
Political Geography:
Europe and France

2. French foreign policy and the limits of Europeanisation. The changing French position on EU enlargement

Author:
Pernille Rieker
Publication Date:
01-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Norwegian Institute of International Affairs
Abstract:
This article looks at the relationship between European integration and national foreign and security policy - specifically, how and to what extent the development of a specifically European (EU) foreign and security policy leads to adaptation and change in national foreign and security policy. The theoretical point of departure is an interest in national changes in response to EU norms. It will be argued that national approaches tend to adapt to norms defined by a community to which they are closely linked; that this adaptation takes place over time, through a socialisation process; and that it may also, in the end, lead to changes in national identity. This argument challenges the common assumption of IR theory that national identities and/or interests are fixed and independent of structural factors like international norms and values. The empirical focus is on changes in French foreign and security policy since the early 1990s. How and to what extent has the dominant French national discourse on foreign and security policy changed since the early 1990s? And if so, how are these changes related to the European integration process in general, and to the development of a European foreign and security dimension in particular?
Topic:
Foreign Policy and Diplomacy
Political Geography:
Europe and France