This compulsory course investigates the rapidly evolving external dimensions of European Union (EU) internal policies with the help of several emblematic case studies chosen from the policy areas of migration, gender, religion and secularism. These policy areas have traditionally received less attention in many curricula on EU external action and are characterised by a common feature of having a direct impact on such groups as migrants, asylum-seekers, women, LGTBQ+ as well as religious and faith-based actors. Drawing from the decentring approach in the study and practice of the EU as an actor of international relations (Fisher-Onar and Nicolaïdis, 2013; Keukeleire and Lecocq, 2016; Wolff et al. 2021), this course will address critically the gap between a Eurocentric mode of externalising EU policies and the need to take into account increasing contestations of the liberal world order, where the mere externalisation of EU policies alone is not sufficient anymore. To remain a relevant order, the ‘Brussels effect’ and attraction of EU internal policies for third countries needs to be complemented by a self-reflexive external dimension, that is able to respond to the contestation of norms increasingly seen as post-colonial and Eurocentric.
While introducing the students to the latest policy developments in each area, and to traditional policy explanations for such an expansion of EU competences (governance, externalisation, institutionalist, securitization and geopolitical approaches), the course will provide students with elements of critical thinking on the external dimension of EU internal security by mobilising post-colonial, feminist and queer theories. The decentring approach will enable students not only to think critically but also to provide constructive policy solutions to improve the EU’s engagement with the rest of the world on these pressing matters. The decentring approach will provide the analytical framework of this course as it aims at reconstituting European agency through three main steps: provincialisation, engagement and reconstruction of diplomatic and policy praxis.
Professor: Sarah WOLFF