SavedAdd your journal

Journals / All Azimuth: A Journal of Foreign Policy and Peace / 2014 / Cilt: 3 - Sayı: 2

‘Via Media’ vs. the Critical Path: Constructivism(s) and the Case of EU Identity

Zeynep Arkan
Pages
21–36
Publication Date
2014-08-29
DOI
—
🏛️Bibliographic metadata and full text access for this article are provided via DergiPark.
DergiPark Record ↗
✨

AI Summary & Key Takeaways

AI Insight
⚡ TL;DR(Too Long; Didn't Read)

To this aim, it explores the ways in which the identity of the European Union has been represented in the foreign policy discourse originating from the Union’s various institutions and leaders, based on a particular conception of ‘Europe.’

📌 3 Key Takeaways

🎯
Objective & Hypothesis:The European Union’s international identity is a theme that has attracted great scholarly interest in the last two decades, parallel to the increasing role of the Union as a global actor.
📊
Key Findings & Data:This study, by differentiating between the critical and conventional constructivist accounts of identity, offers a discursive analysis of the European Union’s identity that concentrates instead on the building blocks and evolution of the identity construction process within the Union.
💡
Conclusion & Impact:To this aim, it explores the ways in which the identity of the European Union has been represented in the foreign policy discourse originating from the Union’s various institutions and leaders, based on a particular conception of ‘Europe.’
🔬Design:Research Article
📍Scope:Comprehensive Sample
⚙️Variables:Identity · constructivism · critical constructivism

Abstract

The European Union’s international identity is a theme that has attracted great scholarly interest in the last two decades, parallel to the increasing role of the Union as a global actor. This period has also witnessed the rise of constructivism as an approach in International Relations with a specific focus on the social nature of and ideational factors in international affairs. Many of the works published in this time frame have approached the topic of European Union identity from a constructivist perspective that focused on the outcomes of the identity construction process within the Union, drawing parallels between the processes of identity construction and dissemination in nation states and at the European level. This study, by differentiating between the critical and conventional constructivist accounts of identity, offers a discursive analysis of the European Union’s identity that concentrates instead on the building blocks and evolution of the identity construction process within the Union. To this aim, it explores the ways in which the identity of the European Union has been represented in the foreign policy discourse originating from the Union’s various institutions and leaders, based on a particular conception of ‘Europe.’

🔖

Cite This Article

Arkan, Z. (2014). ‘Via Media’ vs. the Critical Path: Constructivism(s) and the Case of EU Identity. All Azimuth: A Journal of Foreign Policy and Peace, Cilt: 3 - Sayı: 2, 21–36. https://ajindex.com/articles/119792

📄 Full Text PDF Viewer

📄

PDF görüntüleyici hazırlanıyor...

References (16)

  1. Ad hoc Committee for Institutional Affairs. “Report to the European Council, Brussels, 29-30 March 1985.” Accessed February 20, 2014. http://aei.pitt.edu/997/01/Dooge_final_report.pdf.
  2. Adler, Emanuel and Vincent Pouliot, eds. International Practices. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011.
  3. Adler, Emanuel. “Constructivism and International Relations.” In Handbook of International Relations, edited by Walter Carlsnaes, Thomas Risse and Beth A. Simmons, 95-118. London: SAGE, 2007.
  4. Adler, Emanuel. “Seizing the Middle Ground: Constructivism in World Politics.” European Journal of International Relations 3, no.3 (1997): 319-363.
  5. Bretherton, Charlotte and John Vogler, The European Union as a Global Actor. New York: Routledge, 2006.
  6. Brown, Chris. “The ‘Practice Turn’, Phronesis and Classical Realism: Towards a Phronetic International Political Theory.” Millennium: Journal of International Studies 40, no.3 (2012): 439-456.
  7. Buzan, Barry and Lene Hansen. The Evolution of International Security Studies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009.
  8. Cederman, Lars-Erik. Nationalism and Bounded Integration: What It Would Take to Construct a European Demos. EUI Working Papers 34 (2000).
  9. Checkel, Jeffrey T. “The Constructivist Turn in International Relations Theory.” World Politics 50, no.2 (1998): 324-348.
  10. Checkel, Jeffrey T. and Peter J. Katzenstein, eds. European Identity. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009.
  11. Diez, Thomas. “Constructing the Self and Changing Others: Reconsidering ‘Normative Power Europe’.” Millennium 33, no.3 (2005): 613-636.
  12. Fierke, K.M. “Constructivism.” In International Relations Theories: Discipline and Diversity, edited by Tim Dunne, Milja Kurki and Steve Smith, 177-194. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010.
  13. Fierke, K.M. Critical Approaches to International Security. Cambridge: Polity, 2007.
  14. Hansen, Lene. Security as Practice: Discourse Analysis and the Bosnian War. Abingdon: Routledge, 2006.
  15. Hopf, Ted. “The Promise of Constructivism in International Relations Theory.” International Security 23, no.1 (Summer 1998): 171-200. of Europe: Identity and Boundaries in Conflict, edited by Victoria A. Goddard, Josep R. Llobera and Cris Shore, 298. Providence, RI: Berg, 1994.
  16. Shore, Cris. “Inventing the ‘People’s Europe: Critical Approaches to European Community ‘Cultural Policy’.” Man 28, no.4 (1993): 779-800. Wæver, Ole. “Identity, communities and foreign policy: Discourse analysis as foreign policy theory.” in European Integration and Natio