Conceptualizing The European Union As An International Actor: Narrowing The Theoretical Capability–Expectations Gap

Journal of Common Market Studies September 1999

Vol. 37, No. 3 pp. 429–54

Conceptualizing the European Union as an International Actor: Narrowing the Theoretical Capability–Expectations Gap*

ROY H. GINSBERG

Skidmore College

Abstract
This article identifies relevant explanatory concepts of European foreign policy (EFP) and organizes those concepts into a heuristically useful modelthat depicts the stimuli, processes and effects of EFP decision-making. A cadre of scholars has worked on conceptualizing the European Union (EU) as an international actor, but explanations are still at the pretheoretical stage. Although theorists are developing new and reworking old explanatory concepts, these concepts are not linked in any meaningful way to an overall analytical model. Thearticle begins on a sober note concerning the problems associated with conceptualizing the European Union external identity, but ends on a more sanguine one about the potential for progress not thought possible a short time ago. Scholars are developing explanatory concepts more balanced, rounded, finessed and nuanced than those of their predecessors, and they are moving beyond establishing theexistence of EFP to assessing its outcomes.

* The author thanks Karl Cerny, Kevin Featherstone, Christopher Hill, Knud Erik Jorgensen, Bart Kerremans, John Peterson, Alberta Sbragia and Michael Smith for their comments on previous drafts.
© Blackwell Publishers Ltd 1999, 108 Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 1JF, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA

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ROY H. GINSBERG

I. Gaps BetweenCapability and Expectations The purpose of this article is to identify different theoretical concepts that explain European foreign policy (EFP) behaviour1 and to link those concepts to a model of EFP decision-making. This exercise is timely as scholars continue to lament the theoretical gap between the promise and delivery of their concepts to explain EFP behaviour. They also observe a gap between theexpectation of a collective foreign policy and the capability of common institutions to meet that expectation (Hill, 1993, 1998), although the EU of the late 1990s has lowered its own expectations to meet more modest capabilities and has improved EFP decisionmaking procedures. This article demonstrates that the theoretical capability– expectations gap (CEG) has begun to narrow in the 1990s.Scholars are moving from establishing the existence of the European Union (EU) as an important international presence to testing the EU’s effectiveness as an important international actor, developing more sophisticated explanatory concepts that break free of the debate of an earlier generation over the appropriateness of realist and liberal approaches, and bridging different levels of analysis to achievea more rounded understanding. The Europeans have been trying to speak and act with one voice in international affairs since the enactments of the Rome Treaty in 1958 and the Single European Act (SEA) in 1987 and the introduction of European Political Cooperation (EPC) in 1970. However, by trumpeting a new Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) for the EU in the Maastricht Treaty (1993), the EUraised expectations for a collective diplomacy that exceeded the capabilities of its institutions, instruments and resources. The gap between promise and delivery was first revealed when the fledgling CFSP faced limitations on its policies during the Bosnian war (1991–95) and again in response to the crises in the Aegean (1996), Albania (1997) and Kosovo and Iraq (1998). EFP seemed to have workedbetter before expectations were raised. Whether through the traditional economic diplomacy of the European Community (EC), intergovernmental co-operation of EPC, or a combination thereof, the pre-

1 EFP refers to the formulation and execution of diplomatic and foreign policy actions of the EC and EPC, now CFSP. The SEA gave EPC a permanent secretariat and opened the door to common action on...