0000000000417191
AUTHOR
Thomas Henökl
From ‘Awkward Partner’ to ‘Awkward Partnership’? Explaining Norway’s Paradoxical Relations with the European Union
Norway is the only Nordic state to have rejected membership of the European Union four times. Applying the conceptual lens of ‘awkwardness’, as developed by Murray et al. (2014), it seems fair to consider the country as an awkward partner in the process of European integration. As a member of the European Economic Area (EEA), however, Norway has been tightly associated with the European Union ever since 1994, actively participating in a large number of EU policies and programs and effectively forging a close partnership that has in itself become increasingly ‘awkward’. This holds true despite the fact that successive Norwegian governments have recently started to embrace a generally more re…
New Alliances in Post-Brexit Europe: Does the New Hanseatic League Revive Nordic Political Cooperation?
As Brexit removes the Nordic countries’ most powerful ally from the EU, what does this imply for their approach to European affairs? The literature on small states within the EU suggests that they can counterbalance limited bargaining capacities by entering two types of alliances: strategic partnerships with bigger member states and institutionalised cooperation on a regional basis. Against this backdrop we ask whether, by significantly raising the costs of non-cooperation for Nordic governments, the Brexit referendum has triggered a revival of Nordic political cooperation. We scrutinise this conjecture by analysing Nordic strategies of coalition-building on EU financial and budgetary polic…
Conceptualizing the European Diplomatic Space: A Framework for Analysis of the European External Action Service
The creation of the European External Action Service (EEAS) has a significant impact not only on European foreign policy-making, but also, more widely, on the transformation of the European political order, and represents a further step in the evolution of a European administrative space. Analysing the EEAS as an instance of European administrative space will inform on the shape of the Euro-polity, in that more independent European administrative capacities in area of core state-powers could be interpreted as an indicator for a shift of the EU’s political order. Based on direct observation, document analysis and expert interviews with EEAS officials, the paper presents a first overview of t…
The rising fear of terrorism and the emergence of a European security governance space: citizen perceptions and EU counterterrorism cooperation
Among a wide range of challenges, EU member states have been facing a growing threat from terrorism in the recent years. The primary responsibility for combating terrorism lies with each individual member state, although the threat is becoming increasingly cross-border and diverse. Regardless of whether terrorism poses a real or perceived threat to the states’ and citizens’ security, public opinion is one important force behind the extensive counterterrorism efforts undertaken in Europe. In this article, we explore the influence of public opinion on EU policy within the security domain in the period 2005–19. We investigate the relationship between the number of attacks carried out on EU ter…
The European External Action Service: Torn apart between several principals or acting as a smart 'double-agent'?
Published version of an article in the journal: Journal of Contemporary European Research. Also available from the publisher at: http://www.jcer.net/index.php/jcer/article/view/605/494 Open Access The European External Action Service (EEAS) is a hybrid and compound institutional actor in the EU’s multi-level administration with delegated authority from the member states (MS) to conduct the EU’s external action. Substantial competences, notably in the field of Neighbourhood and Trade policies, as well as Development and Cooperation remain under the control of the European Commission (Commission). At the same time, also Members of the European Parliament (EP) are more clearly voicing their in…
Bureaucratic structure, geographical location and the autonomy of administrative systems. Evidence from the European External Action Service
Presentation on department page: http://www.uia.no/no/portaler/om_universitetet/oekonomi_og_samfunnsvitenskap/statsvitenskap_og_ledelsesfag/ forskning_isl/isl_working_papers_series Formulating and implementing public policy in Europe has historically been a prerogative of national administrations. This paper explores how these prerogatives may have become challenged with the ‘autonomization’ of the European Union’s (EU’s) foreign affairs administration (The European External Action Service (EEAS)). The ambition of this paper is two-fold: First, to assess how independent EEAS personnel are when making decisions, thus measuring actor-level autonomy. Secondly, to account for actor-level autono…
How Brexit affects EU external action: The UK’s legacy in European international cooperation
Abstract What exactly Brexit means for British engagement in European external affairs and development cooperation, is highly unclear, while its potential impact is considerable. After the general election in the UK on 8 June 2017, uncertainty regarding the direction, process and timing of the Brexit negotiations and the risk of a disorderly separation have risen further. The government position of a ‘hard Brexit’ seems no longer to be carved in stone. Yet, given the expected – total or partial – withdrawal of a major EU member state, like any area of EU politics, also European development policy faces a number of challenges: short-term problems regarding existing legal obligations, looming…