Still Fashionable Yet Useless? Addressing Problems with Research on the Europeanization of Foreign Policy

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to address problems with research on the ‘Europeanization’ of foreign policy. The first section shows that Europeanization defined as a process of incorporation of European Union norms, practices and procedures into the domestic level is more useful than any of the other ‘faces’ of the concept discussed in the literature. The second section shows that while Europeanization is applicable to the study of foreign policy, the adaptational pressure model is not; that Europeanization should not be identified exclusively with socialization; and that it should be distinguished from ‘uploading’. The final section shows how process tracing the observable implications of alternative explanations of foreign policy change for three dimensions of the policy-making process – the definition of the policy problem, the alternatives considered and the manner in which the latter were assessed – makes it possible to establish the causal significance of the EU.