Coordinative Europeanization and Russia’s war of aggression: how crises shape Europeanization dynamics in EU foreign policy

Abstract

The European Union’s response to Russia’s war of aggression has run contrary to expectations of EU foreign policy inaction and incoherence as well as warnings of de-Europeanization and renationalization of foreign policy. Drawing on the concept of coordinative Europeanization, we argue that the response to the war has allowed for a more horizontal, cooperative decision-making process involving both member states and EU institutions, as well as a reversal of traditionally Western European-centric dynamics of horizontal Europeanization. With the aim of investigating these changes further, this paper relies on the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine as a case study to explore how crises shape Europeanization dynamics in EU foreign and security policy. Relying on primary and secondary sources as well as interviews with EU and national officials, we show how the coordinative Europeanization we have witnessed since the start of the war can be attributed to the characteristics of the crisis itself. In so doing, the paper contributes to the literature on Europeanization of foreign policy as well as to studies focusing on the effect of crises on the process of European integration.