Module description
The European Union is the second largest economy in the world and has for decades made its voice heard in trade, commercial and development matters. Since the Treaty of Maastricht, the EU has also become increasingly capable and active in areas related to security, environmental protection and human rights. This module centres on the varied roles the European Union and its member states play in the international system. It provides students with the relevant theoretical grounding to analyse long-term trends as well as short-term dynamics in European foreign policy-making. The module will focus in depth on key EU policies such as trade, democracy promotion, counter-terrorism and defence and will also investigate the EU’s relations with key countries such as the US, Russia and China. Students choosing this module should already have a good understanding of how the European Union and its institutions work as well as an understanding of key International Relations theories.
*Please note that module information is provisional and may change from year to year.
Assessment details
1 op-ed Article 800-900 Words (15%), 1 x 2500 Essay (40%) plus 2 hour in person exam (45%) Summer examination period
Educational aims & objectives
- To give students a differentiated picture of the European Union’s wide-ranging activities in the field of foreign affairs, including the key role of its member states in this regard;
- To help them appreciate the complexities of varying decision-making modes and the problem of ensuring vertical and horizontal coherence in crucial policy fields;
- To analyse some of the EU’s key bi- and multilateral relations with countries and regions of the world;
- To provide students with a critical perspective on key academic and some public debates in the field and help develop their own approach to them;
- To enhance students’ analytical and communication skills by giving them an opportunity to construct oral arguments in class and written arguments in a specific format relevant to public discourse.
Learning outcomes
- Students will acquire the competences to choose and critically apply a range of theoretical approaches from the fields of International Relations, especially foreign policy analysis and European Union studies. They will know how to employ key theories and concepts to analyse the complex ways in which member states shape EU foreign policy, but are at the same time enmeshed and influenced by it;
- Students will be able to appreciate and critically analyse how the EU’s wide-ranging competences and capabilities have evolved over time, how foreign policy-making in the EU works, and what the main actors, policies and international relationships are;
- Students will be able to identify and analyse central academic debates in European foreign affairs and apply their knowledge to current public debates;
- Students will be able to apply their skills of research, textual interpretation, analysis and writing at an intermediate to advanced level;
- Students will develop their confidence and communication skills to participate constructively in debate in class and clearly articulate their informed judgements in a way relevant to public discourse.
Teaching pattern
One hour lecture, one hour seminar, weekly
Indicative teaching schedule
SEMESTER ONE:
Part 1: Theoretical and conceptual approaches to the EU’s foreign policy
Week 1: The European Union on the world stage
Week 2: Theorising the EU’s behaviour in international affairs
Week 3: The EU and member states’ foreign policies: Coordinated, Europeanised or autonomous?
Week 4: Evaluating the performance of EU foreign policy: Coherence and Effectiveness
Part 2: Policies
Week 5: Enlargement and the neighbourhood
Week 6: The EU’s security and defence policy
Week 7: The EU and counter-terrorism
Week 8: The EU’s trade policy
Week 9: The EU’s’ development policy
Week 10: The EU and external migration policy
SEMESTER 2:
Part 3: Key relationships
Week 11: Analysing EU bilateral and multilateral key relationships and challenges
Week 12: The EU and Russia: Partners or enemies?
Week 13: The EU and the United States: A declining alliance?
Week 14: The EU and China: Strategic partners or competitors?
Week 15: The EU and inter-regional cooperation: The cases of Mercosur and ASEAN
Week 16: The EU and international organisations: Multilateralism and effectiveness
Part 4: Contemporary debates
Week 17: The EU and Turkey: Interests vs. values?
Week 18: The EU and climate change
Week 19: The implications of Brexit for EU foreign policy
Week 20: Concluding session: What kind of power?
Note that this teaching schedule is provisional and subject to change.
Suggested reading list
Core texts
- Stephan Keukeleire and Tom Delreux (2014) The Foreign Policy of the European Union, 2nd edition (Palgrave)
- Christopher Hill, Michael Smith, Sophie Vanhoonacker (eds) (2017) International Relations and the European Union (Oxford University Press)
- Smith, K. E. (2014) European Union Foreign Policy in a Changing World. 3rd ed., Polity Press