Failing forward and EU foreign policy: the dynamics of ‘integration without membership’ in the Eastern Neighbourhood

Abstract

ABSTRACT The article aims to investigate the applicability of the ‘failing forward’ framework to the case of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP). The ‘failing forward’ framework explains how the liberal intergovernmentalist and neo-functionalist developments shape policy dynamics in the ENP. It is, however, proven to be challenging to determine the initial policy incompleteness and, due to the influence of exogenous factors, also explain the origins of the Ukraine crisis using the framework. Although the ‘failing forward’ framework responds to the intellectual demand for stronger exchange between the theories of EU integration and the EU Foreign Policy Studies, it is not able to fully explain complex crises at the ‘high politics’ level.