Decentring Norms in EU Relations with the Southern Neighbourhood

Abstract

The EU's external promotion of norms and the idea of normative power Europe itself are increasingly contested, which is especially true in the EU's southern neighbourhood. However, whereas scholars of EU foreign policy acknowledge the contestation of external norms, they find it difficult to understand why other normative frameworks could be equally or more appealing to Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) countries, as they entail norms that are less prominent in the Western catalogue of liberal values. To facilitate the detection and analysis of a wider set of norms, we situate them along several continua of norm orientations and apply this framework to the EU's southern neighbourhood. EU foreign policy scholars can then examine whether different norms overlap or compete or are complementary or even incompatible, and the extent to which values promoted by European actors are congruent with normative frameworks in the MENA region.

External perceptions of the European Union in Israel—the role of norms and culture

“…The idea of NPE is not just a scholarly interpretation. Despite being contested among scholars, NPE is a central aspect of EU policy toward both its southern neighborhood and its overall European neighborhood policy (Keukeleire et al, 2021). While often described from this perspective as a unique entity, the EU is part of the liberal international order and normative considerations of the EU correspond with this order (Engelbrekt et al, 2020).…”

“…Examining the EU's actions as a global actor through the lenses of norms and the theoretical framework of normative power remains relevant due to current developments in the European neighborhood and the global arena (Aydın-Düzgit and Noutcheva, 2022; Romanova, 2016). It is especially relevant as many EU practitioners use the normative component as part of the EU neighborhood policy (Keukeleire et al, 2021), particularly in Israel (Pardo and Zahavi, 2022).…”

How to Reflexively Decentre EU Foreign Policy: Dissonance and Contrapuntal Reconstruction in Migration, Religious and Neighbourhood Governance

“…In the field of EU foreign policy, pluriversal engagement means to seek understanding of lifeworlds beyond Europe, and decentring away from one's own moral/cultural centre(s). Crucially, from this relational perspective, acknowledgement of other perspectives does not mean replacing eurocentrism with other centrisms, nor does it entail simplifying or stressing the difference between the self and the other (Keukeleire et al ., 2021). Instead, the goal is to reflexively engage a plurality of histories and values while also recognizing the syncretism that shapes us all.…”

“…Keukeleire and Lecocq (2018) significantly expanded the framework by seeking to decentre the world‐ordering roles of our spatial, temporal, normative and political formations, our linguistic conventions, and the very disciplines of international relations (IR) and foreign policy analysis (FPA). Decentring approaches have been used in analyses of the EU's regional engagements, particularly in relations with proximate neighbours in the Middle East, north Africa and eastern Europe (Cebeci, 2012; Huber and Kamel, 2018; Zardo, 2020; Keukeleire et al ., 2021), as well as in Asia (He, 2016; Hoang, 2016), Africa (Staeger, 2016; Ejdus, 2018) and Latin America (Serban and Harutyunyan, 2021). The need to decentre by provincializing European modes of being, doing and engaging has also been affirmed in thematic areas of inquiry like migration (Kutz and Wolff, 2021), bordering (El Qadim et al ., 2021), gender and sexuality (Dandashly, 2021; Wolff, 2021), or the role of historical memory (Aydın‐Düzgit et al ., 2020; Pace and Roccu, 2020).…”

Editorial: Decolonizing Rather than Decentring ‘Europe’

“…A key part of the purported problem is indeed the 'inadequacy … to understand and explain the EU's role and the outcome of its foreign policy' in a complex world. 34 But from a decolonial perspective, it's important to recall that historically 'objective' research has been used to cement the existing power relations as 'natural'. 35,36 Therefore, while the decentring agenda seems to entail a practical dimension that can be credited for enhancing the applicability and comprehensibility for students and stakeholders, there is a risk of falling into methodic, 'ticking the box' exercises that obfuscate the complexities that are inherent to postcolonial developments and continuing colonialities.…”