Quantifying Foreign Policy Europeanization: A Comprehensive Approach

Abstract

This article seeks to address the question of how membership in the European Union (EU) affects the foreign policy positions of its Member States. Most of the existing research has focused on single case studies and relied on qualitative methods, encountering difficulties in providing a systematic and consistent general picture about the causal effect of membership. Instead, this study adopts a comprehensive and quantitative approach. Drawing from constructivist theory in International Relations, it clarifies a general theoretical framework for Foreign Policy Europeanization. It then employs national speeches at the United Nations General Debate to construct two measures of similarity with the EU’s positions and norms in international affairs. Applying these to a difference-in-differences approach, it finds substantial evidence that, after several years of membership, countries gradually converge towards the positions and norms of the Union. It is argued that these overall findings are consistent with a socialization effect, but not with material cost-benefit calculations. Europeanization, Foreign Policy, European Union, United Nations General Debate, Socialization, Constructivism, Difference-in-differences, Quantitative Text Analysis