The European Union as an International Actor

2024/2025

Academic Year

ENG

Instruction in English

3

ECTS credits

Delivered at:

Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs

Course type:

Elective course

When:

3 year, 3, 4 module

Instructor

Мельникова Юлия Юрьевна

Course Syllabus

Abstract

IR scholars used to consider the European Union, the United States of America and China three pillars of the post – Cold War international system. In particular, in 2000s the US as a superpower acquired the role of a steward of the world order, while China became a custodian of the global economy. The EU in its turn was to set the agenda for global development, be it in the human rights area or with regard to green transition. Brussels was relying on normative power, trying to shape its partners’ development via conditional engagement with them, thereby installing institutional change, promoting democracy, and aiding market opening. Yet, in middle-to-late 2010s, it became apparent that the international environment was getting increasingly hostile towards all three designated leaders. Traditional great powers have engaged in geopolitical competition, racing for resources and status. Ever since, the EU as a non-traditional actor, whose decision-making results from an interplay between Brussels and Member States, has been facing particular difficulties in adapting to new reality. On the one hand, there has been a remarkable discursive shift towards “strategic autonomy” and “strategic sovereignty”, calling for increased security and defense cooperation within the EU and a more pragmatic foreign policy approach. On the other hand, limited competences of the EU institutions and lack of cohesion among Member States remains a significant obstacle for Brussels to diversify its foreign policy instruments beyond normative ones. This poses a question whether the EU can remain competitive in the future world order. The course will discuss the historic, institutional and practical foundations of the EU actorness over the years. It will pay particular attention to its manifestations with regard to major individual players, such as the US, China and Russia; smaller regional powers; as well as regional spaces, such as Asia, Latin America, and Africa. Proceeding from actorness criteria, suggested by academic literature, the course aims to study, how the EU works with various partners, where its interests and objectives lay and what methods Brussel has at its disposal in order to achieve them. At the end of the course, students are to acquire in-depth understanding of what the EU foreign policy look like, and, on a broader level, to

Learning Objectives

• Trace back the evolution of the European integration, paying particular attention to its outer dimension, ultimately taking form of the EU foreign policy
• Analyze, how current composition of the EU institutions influences the spectrum of foreign policy capabilities of the Union, identify strengths and weaknesses of the existing institutional framework
• Explore main instruments of the EU actorness building and projection; highlight the differences in their usage towards individual bigger and smaller actors
• Grade regional priorities of the EU foreign policy; compare the EU strategy and instruments with regard to various regions
• Proceeding from the comparison, identify the most efficient instruments of EU actorness projection in current international realities as well as main obstacles in this process

Expected Learning Outcomes

• Describe key tracks of the foreign policy of the European Union, formulate the EU policy interests, objectives and instuments with regard ro each of them
• Compare the EU foreign policy capabilities with regard to great, middle and smaller international powers, identify the EU institutional, ideational and material advantages and disadvantages as compared with counterparts of different sizes
• Determine the best instruments of the EU foreign policy projection over various regions of the world, identify limitations with regard to each of them
• Assess the level of actorness of the European Union in the current international environment generally and with regard to major counterparts and regions of interest

Course Contents

• European Union as Integration Space
• Beyond Integration: Why Talking about European Actorness?
• The Concept of Actorness in EU Studies. Parameters of Analysis.
• Actorness in Equal Partnerships: the EU – the U.S. Bilateral Relationship vs Transatlantic Agenda
• Actorness in Equal Partnerships. The EU – China Trimensional Dialogue
• Projecting Influence over Regions: the EU in Asia-Pacific
• Navigating Long-Distance Partnership: the EU Influence in Africa and Latin America
• The Uneven EU – Russia Relationship. Any Room for Actorness?
• The EU in Eurasia
• Grading European Actorness. What does the future Hold for the EU?

Assessment Elements

• In-class activity
  20%. Students are expected to actively engage in in-class group assignments and discussions. Every seminar will result is assessing each student’s contribution to the discussion. By the end of the course, the instructor will provide a final average mark for in-class activity. Assessment will be based on quality of each student’s preparation and their contribution to collective discussions, ability to answer questions based on the readings and lecture materials, come up with own interpretations of those, as well as react to other students’ comments.
• Roleplay
  10%. Roleplay takes place in the 4th module, wrapping up the EU – Russia relations block. The choice of the particular debate topic is to be made collectively by students. After that, students will be assigned different roles and will have to prepare positions, working individually or in groups at home in order to perform well during the in-class debates. Both at-home preparation and in-class activity are counted.
• Home reading
  10%. It is of vital importance for students to keep track of home readings either in handwriting, or electronically. Compulsory literature is for students to summarize in one google document and share within the group as well as with an instructor. Each student has to contribute to updating common file at least twice. Additional points can be earned through critically assessing home reading texts in the commentary section, debating them in class or updating the materials with later developments in the common document.
• Midterm test
  20%. Midterm test takes place on the second-to-final week in the 3rd module and consists of multiple choice questions as well as open questions of various levels of difficulty. The tasks proceed both from lecture materials and home readings. The results of the test are to be shared with students before the end of the module.
• Final exam
  40%. Oral exam is obligatory and takes place on the exam week in June. The instructor is to share a list of 24 questions one month before the final exam date. Each student will get two questions out of the main list with 10 minutes to prepare and 10 minutes to answer. The instructor may ask additional questions concerning other topics of the course. The exam can be retaken if a student fails to pass it for the first time, in line with HSE regulations.

Interim Assessment

• 2024/2025 4th module
  0.4 * Final exam + 0.1 * Home reading + 0.2 * In-class activity + 0.2 * Midterm test + 0.1 * Roleplay

Bibliography

Recommended Core Bibliography

• The foreign policy of the European Union, Keukeleire, S., 2008

Recommended Additional Bibliography

• Diez, T., & Tocci, N. (2017). The EU, Promoting Regional Integration, and Conflict Resolution. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=1361932
• Tatiana Romanova. (2008). Russia and Europe in the Twenty‐First Century: An Uneasy Partnership – Edited by J. Gower and G. Timmins. Journal of Common Market Studies, (3), 727. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-5965.2008.00797_14.x

Authors

• STROKOV IVAN DENISOVICH
• KOROLEV ALEKSANDR SERGEEVICH
• Кузнецова Елена Викторовна