Skip to main content
Disciplines
Automotive Business IT + Informatics Construction + Real Estate Electrical Engineering + Electronics Energy + Sustainability Insurance + Risk Finance + Banking Management + Leadership Marketing + Sales Mechanical Engineering + Materials
Events
DE
EN
Books
Journals
Topic Page
Marketing
Start single access now
Access for companies
EXTENDED SEARCH
Log in
Top

2019 | Book

Introduction: Strategy-Making in the Era of Intergovernmentalism Read chapter Read first chapter

Strategy-Making in the EU

From Foreign and Security Policy to External Action

Author: Pol Morillas

Publisher: Springer International Publishing

Book Series : The European Union in International Affairs

Part of: Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" , Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

Login to get access
insite
SEARCH

About this book

This book provides a detailed analysis of the policy-making processes of EU strategies in foreign and security policy and external action. It uses the European Security Strategy and the EU Global Strategy to assess their policy-making dynamics both before and after the Lisbon Treaty. Inter-institutional relations in strategy-making are put into the context of current debates in European integration, questioning the assumption that the EU is a body increasingly ruled by intergovernmentalism - as reflected by the new intergovernmentalism literature. The book also provides a categorisation of EU strategies and considers them as policy-inspiration documents, acting as frameworks for policy-making. This reading of strategies lies behind the analysis of the policy-making processes of the ESS and the EUGS, unpacked into four phases: agenda-setting, policy formulation, policy output and implementation. By looking at the shifting policy-making dynamics from foreign and security policy to external action, the author sheds light on the current shape of EU integration.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter
Chapter 1. Introduction: Strategy-Making in the Era of Intergovernmentalism
Abstract
A significant share of current theorisation efforts in European integration signals a trend towards more intergovernmentalism. External action has supposedly been no stranger to these dynamics, with member states emerging as the winners of a power contest with supranational institutions. The new intergovernmentalism has captured these developments by looking at the shape of integration since the Maastricht Treaty. Yet against this background, a closer look at the functioning of external action since the Lisbon Treaty unveils a stronger autonomy of de novo bodies such as the High Representative/Vice-president of the European Commission (HR/VP) and the (EEAS) in policy-making. This chapter introduces the analytical and empirical purposes of this book and argues that the strategy-making of the European Security Strategy (ESS) and the European Union Global Strategy (EUGS) nuances some of the central premises of an ever more intergovernmental European Union (EU).
Pol Morillas
Chapter 2. An Ever More Intergovernmental EU? From Foreign and Security Policy to External Action
Abstract
This chapter provides the analytical framework of the book by looking at two parallel developments. On the one hand, it reviews the re-emergence of a long-lasting debate between intergovernmentalism and supranationalism in the form of the new intergovernmentalism and its critiques. On the other, it analyses the shift from foreign policy to external action and the inter-institutional dynamics in both areas. The chapter reviews the policy-making of the intergovernmental CFSP and of a hybrid area such as external action and highlights the increasing autonomy that the HR/VP and the EEAS have gained since the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty. By bringing together both literatures, this chapter lays the ground for the study of the policy-making processes of the ESS and the EUGS.
Pol Morillas
Chapter 3. EU Strategies and Their Purposes
Abstract
EU strategies can be understood as documents revealing the EU’s strategic culture, as milestones for assessing the impact of the EU as a global actor and as a tool for policy-inspiration in foreign policy and external action. This chapter prioritises this third reading of EU strategies and argues that they should be considered as milestone documents informing about policy-making in these areas. The chapter locates EU strategies in the broad external action framework and reviews the various sorts of strategies produced by the EU until today. It considers that while being a coherent actor tends to reflect a preoccupation with the internal (mal)functioning of EU external action, acting strategically is considered a prerequisite for being an effective global actor.
Pol Morillas
Chapter 4. The Policy-Making of the European Security Strategy (2003)
Abstract
This chapter provides the first empirical case study of the book by looking at the policy-making process of the first foreign and security policy strategy ever adopted by the EU. The chapter shows how the different phases of strategy-making in the European Security Strategy (ESS) nuance the predominance of intergovernmentalism in the CFSP. Its policy-making process signals the emergence of an experimental mode in EU foreign policy, close to the dynamics of institutionalised intergovernmentalism (Christiansen in European Union: Power and Policy-Making. Routledge, London, pp. 135–154, 2001), whereby salient institutionalisation practices were led by the High Representative (HR) and his team at the General Secretariat of the Council. In 2003, Javier Solana benefited from a wide room of manoeuvre in all phases of a relatively short policy-making cycle due to the permissiveness of member states and his strong political leadership.
Pol Morillas
Chapter 5. The Policy-Making of the European Union Global Strategy (2016)
Abstract
This chapter examines the policy-making process of the EUGS as an illustration of the inter-institutional dynamics of external action. It argues that the HR/VP benefited from having the right of initiative when deciding on the range of policies covered by the EUGS and the shape of its policy formulation process. Strategy-making has provided for the emergence of autonomy in intergovernmentalism, whereby the HR/VP and the EEAS have become central players in an area traditionally ruled by intergovernmental practices. The focus on the operationalisation of the EUGS has also enabled the EU to make progress in several areas of implementation, particularly security and defence. The EUGS has become the vehicle through which current developments circulate and has facilitated the parallel convergence of policy initiatives.
Pol Morillas
Chapter 6. Conclusions
Abstract
This chapter brings together the empirical findings of strategy-making in the ESS and the EUGS and reads them in light of the current shape of EU integration along the lines of the new intergovernmentalism. It argues that, although post-Lisbon policy-making in external action is still “in the making”, this policy area cannot be considered as ruled by intergovernmentalism only. The HR/VP and the EEAS have shown how they can shape policy-making in external action and, through the EUGS, have brought the institutionalised intergovernmentalism of the ESS to a next level of autonomy in intergovernmentalism. The chapter also offers avenues for future research in light of the analytical and empirical findings of the book and the passage from foreign and security policy to external action.
Pol Morillas
Backmatter
Metadata
Title
Strategy-Making in the EU
Author
Pol Morillas
Copyright Year
2019
Electronic ISBN
978-3-319-98627-2
Print ISBN
978-3-319-98626-5
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98627-2