Rule of Law Promotion in the European Neighbourhood Policy: Normative or Strategic Power Europe? (Studies on the European Union)

This dissertation analyzes the interplay of normative and strategic aspects in the European Neighborhood Policy. The book argues that the EU's Rule of Law promotion policy in four neighboring countries - Moldova, Morocco, Tunisia, and Ukraine - is best explained by combining institutional, ideational, interdependence, and third-country related factors. The study brings abstract concepts from the EU foreign policy literature, such as normative power or composite policy, into the realm of empirical research. In substantive terms, the study investigates the EU's Rule of Law policy-making and the adopted policy outputs in four issue areas: counter-terrorism, counter-narcotics, anti-corruption, and judicial reform. The comparative analysis of the case studies calls into question the common assumption that the EU's institutional features pre-dispose it to act as a normative power in international relations. It is rather shown that third-country-related factors need to feature prominently in future explanatory frameworks. With respect to the debate on the nature of the EU's power, the study concludes that hybrid projections prevail. Dissertation.