Why study EU foreign policy at all? A response to Keuleers, Fonck and Keukeleire.

Hylke Dijkstra,Sophie Vanhoonacker

doi:10.1177/0010836716682393

Abstract

In an important article on the state of European Union (EU) foreign policy research, Keuleers, Fonck and Keukeleire show that academics excessively focus on the study of the EU foreign policy system and EU implementation rather than the consequences of EU foreign policy for recipient countries. While the article is empirical, based on a dataset of 451 published articles on EU foreign policy, the normative message is that it is time to stop ‘navel-gazing’ and pay more attention to those on the receiving end of EU foreign policy. We welcome this contribution, but wonder why certain research questions have been privileged over others. We argue that this has primarily to do with the predominant puzzles of the time. We also invite Keuleers, Fonck and Keukeleire to make a theoretical case for a research agenda with more attention to outside-in approaches. We conclude by briefly reflecting on future research agendas in EU foreign policy.

Highlights

It is regularly observed that more academics study European Union (EU) foreign policy than there are civil servants to make it work
Based on a dataset of 451 articles on EU foreign policy, published in key journals between 2010 and 2014, they identify three research approaches: first, the ‘inward-looking’ approach which focuses on the EU foreign policy system itself; second, the ‘insideout’ approach which assesses the implementation of EU foreign policy; and third, the ‘outside-in’ approach which analyses the consequences of EU foreign policy for recipient
We would like to build on the findings of Keuleers et al (2016) to discuss why certain research questions have been privileged over others

Summary

Introduction

It is regularly observed that more academics study European Union (EU) foreign policy than there are civil servants to make it work.1 In their contribution to Cooperation and Conflict, Keuleers et al (2016) show that a large proportion of these academics primarily examine what those civil servants do.Based on a dataset of 451 articles on EU foreign policy, published in key journals between 2010 and 2014, they identify three research approaches: first, the ‘inward-looking’ approach which focuses on the EU foreign policy system itself; second, the ‘insideout’ approach which assesses the implementation of EU foreign policy; and third, the ‘outside-in’ approach which analyses the consequences of EU foreign policy for recipientWe are the (co-)authors of 8/192 articles classified in their dataset as inward-looking. Keywords European Union, foreign policy, research agenda, theory

Results

Conclusion