European Union Contested: Foreign Policy in a New Global Context (Norm Research in International Relations)

The European Union's foreign policy and its international role are increasingly being contested both globally and at home. At the global level, a growing number of states are now challenging the Western-led liberal order defended by the EU. Large as well as smaller states are vying for more leeway to act out their own communitarian principles on and approaches to sovereignty, security and economic development. At the European level, a similar battle has begun over principles, values and institutions. The most vocal critics have been anti-globalization movements, developmental NGOs, and populist political parties at both extremes of the left-right political spectrum. This book, based on ten case studies, explores some of the most important current challenges to EU foreign policy norms, whether at the global, glocal or intra-EU level. The case studies cover contestation of the EU's fundamental norms, organizing principles and standardized procedures in relation to the abolition of the death penalty, climate, Responsibility to Protect, peacebuilding, natural resource governance, the International Criminal Court, lethal autonomous weapons systems, trade, the security-development nexus and the use of consensus on foreign policy matters in the European Parliament. The book also theorizes the current norm contestation in terms of the extent to, and conditions under which, the EU foreign policy is being put to the test. Acknowledgements 6 Contents 8 Editors and Contributors 10 Abbreviations 12 1 EU Foreign Policy and Norm Contestation in an Eroding Western and Intra-EU Liberal Order 14 Contestation of the EU’s Foreign Policy Norms and Values 18 Modes of Contestation of the EU’s Foreign Policy Norms and Values 20 Outcomes of the EU’s Contested Foreign Policy Norms and Values 24 References 26 2 The EU and Controlling the Use of the Death Penalty: An Organising Principle for Which Fundamental Norm? 29 The European Union and the Abolition of the Death Penalty 30 A Decade-Long Transition from Arbitration to Justification 36 Hard Contestation and Increased Legitimacy 40 Conclusion 42 References 43 3 Common but Differentiated Responsibility in International Climate Negotiations: The EU and Its Contesters 46 Common but Differentiated Responsibility and Its Contesters 48 What Is Contested? 49 Analyzing Contestation: Methodology 51 Who Contests? 52 Contesting CBDR Through Deliberation 54 Common but Differentiated: Dynamic Interpretation Versus no Reinterpretation 55 Whose Responsibilities? 57 Bifurcation and Respective Obligations 59 Outcome: The EU Building Bridges Between Contesters? 61 Conclusions 62 References 64 4 China Contestation of the EU’s Promotion of the Responsibility to Protect: Between Solidarists and Sovereignists 66 The Tension Between the Norm of Sovereignty and the Principle of Humanitarian Intervention in European and Chinese Perspective: The Responsibility to Protect 68 Mode of Contesting the Responsibility to Protect: The Crisis in Darfur, Libya and Syria 73 Outcomes of an Intensive Norm Contestation: Towards a Responsible Protection? 80 Conclusions 82 References 83 5 India’s ‘Silent Contestation’ of the EU’s Perspective on Local Ownership 86 Whose Peace? Locating Local Ownership Within a Larger Framework of International Norms on Security Governance 87 Deliberation, Justification, ‘Silent Contestation’, and Questions Over Contestatory Practice 92 Outcome: Rethinking Legitimacy of Local Ownership? 96 Conclusions 97 References 98 6 Good Natural Resource Governance: How Does the EU Deal with the Contestation of Transparency Standards? 105 Transparency as an Organizing Principle of Good Natural Resource Governance 106 Transparency Contested from Different Sides 113 Outcome of the Norm Contestation Process: Transparency Withstands 115 Conclusion 118 References 119 7 The European Union and the International Criminal Court: Contested Abroad, Consensual at Home? 123 The ICC and Norm Contestation 124 Bilateral Immunity Agreements and International Criminal Justice 126 Sitting Heads of State, Between Justice and Sovereignty 127 The Crime of Aggression and the UNSC 128 The EU and International Criminal Justice 130 The EU and BIAs 131 The EU and the Immunity of Sitting Heads of State 133 The EU and the Crime of Aggression 134 Patterns of EU Behaviour Towards Norm Contestation on the ICC 135 Conclusion 137 References 139 8 The European Union and Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems: United in Diversity? 142 Deliberating the Emerging Norm on LAWS 144 Contesting the Norm on Human Control: A European Insight 149 The EU and the Side Effects of Contesting LAWS’ Human Control 154 Conclusions 156 References 157 9 Norm Contestation in Modern Trade Agreements: Was the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership a “One-off”? 162 The Trade Norms of the EU 164 TTIP Opponents and Supporters 166 A Hard and Consistent Contestation Strategy 168 The Impact on Legitimacy 172 Conclusion 176 References 177 10 Military Capacity Building as EU’s New Security and Development Strategy: The New Rules for Peace Promotion? 181 Contesting the Military Capacity-Development Nexus 183 How Is the New Approach to Security-Development Nexus Contested? 185 Overlapping Contestations and EU’s Legitimacy 191 Conclusion 193 Bibliography 195 11 When Contestation Is the Norm: The Position of Populist Parties in the European Parliament Towards Conflicts in Europe’s Neighbourhood 198 Contestation of the Consensus in the European Parliament 200 Consensus as an Organising Principle in the European Parliament 200 Populist Parties as Contesters in the European Parliament 201 Data and Methods 204 The Modes of Contestation of EU Foreign Policy by Populist Parties 205 The Ukrainian Crisis 206 The Syrian Crisis 210 What Are the Prospects for Populist Challenges to the Legitimacy of EU Foreign Policy? 213 Conclusion 214 References 215 Front Matter ....Pages i-xii EU Foreign Policy and Norm Contestation in an Eroding Western and Intra-EU Liberal Order (Elisabeth Johansson-Nogués, Martijn C. Vlaskamp, Esther Barbé)....Pages 1-15 The EU and Controlling the Use of the Death Penalty: An Organising Principle for Which Fundamental Norm? (Robert Kissack)....Pages 17-33 Common but Differentiated Responsibility in International Climate Negotiations: The EU and Its Contesters (Franziska Petri, Katja Biedenkopf)....Pages 35-54 China Contestation of the EU’s Promotion of the Responsibility to Protect: Between Solidarists and Sovereignists (Lluc López i Vidal)....Pages 55-74 India’s ‘Silent Contestation’ of the EU’s Perspective on Local Ownership (Lara Klossek)....Pages 75-93 Good Natural Resource Governance: How Does the EU Deal with the Contestation of Transparency Standards? (Martijn C. Vlaskamp)....Pages 95-112 The European Union and the International Criminal Court: Contested Abroad, Consensual at Home? (Gemma Collantes-Celador, Oriol Costa)....Pages 113-131 The European Union and Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems: United in Diversity? (Esther Barbé, Diego Badell)....Pages 133-152 Norm Contestation in Modern Trade Agreements: Was the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership a “One-off”? (Leif Johan Eliasson, Patricia Garcia-Duran)....Pages 153-171 Military Capacity Building as EU’s New Security and Development Strategy: The New Rules for Peace Promotion? (Marta Iñiguez de Heredia)....Pages 173-189 When Contestation Is the Norm: The Position of Populist Parties in the European Parliament Towards Conflicts in Europe’s Neighbourhood (Milan van Berlo, Michal Natorski)....Pages 191-211