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Title
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Networked practices of European geoeconomic diplomacy : how diplomatic relations shape the implementation of economic sanctions
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Author
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Abstract
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| Geoeconomics, the strategic utilisation of national wealth to obtain geostrategic objectives, has proven to be an engrained aspect of foreign and security policymaking in the 21st century’s multipolar economic global order. In this dissertation, I challenge the conventional assumption that prosperous states are inevitably well equipped for instrumentalising their economic means of power by examining a dilemma inherent to the geoeconomic aspirations of the European Union (EU) and its Member States. In European governance models of liberal market capitalism, much of a state’s wealth and resources rest in the hands of independent private actors. This limits EU governments’ ability to exert direct control over the economic means that underpin the use of geoeconomic measures such as economic sanctions, targeted economic assistance, and trade defence instruments. My research investigates the challenges impeding the use of these tools and how diplomatic actors and actions can mitigate them. To this end, the dissertation advances new conceptual, theoretical, and empirical insights into the conduct of geoeconomics: Conceptually, it introduces ‘geoeconomic diplomacy’ as an analytical category that acknowledges the connection between national wealth and geostrategic influence, while recognising the critical role of diplomatic relationships between state and non-state actors when governments seek to implement geoeconomic policies. Theoretically, the dissertation develops an analytical framework that draws on the pragmatic school of practice theory, particularly concepts from actor- network theory, to analyse the ‘networked practices’ that shape governments’ conduct of geoeconomic diplomacy and the role of diplomats in establishing these practices. Empirically, I apply these insights to analyse challenges pertaining to the EU’s use of geoeconomic instruments. The analysis specifically focuses on economic sanctions, which throughout the 2010s appeared as the geoeconomic weapon of choice when the EU intervened in armed conflicts in its eastern and southern neighbourhood. It investigates how complex networked practices came to shape the EU and its Member States’ geoeconomic diplomacy when implementing economic sanctions against Russia and Syria. The dissertation concludes by discussing how the identification of conflicting diplomatic actor-network practices can help explain why states’ use of multiple geoeconomic instruments might cause mutually detrimental effects. It concludes with reflections on the value of pragmatic, as opposed to critical, approaches to practice studies for understanding how diplomats can leverage their actor-network positions to act as ‘shapers’ of foreign and security policymaking beyond formal means of governmental control, both within and outside the realm of geoeconomics. |
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Language
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English
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Publication
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Antwerp
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University of Antwerp, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Political Science
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2020
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Volume/pages
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269 p.
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Note
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:
Melissen, Jan [Supervisor]
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Full text (open access)
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