Beatrix Futak-Campbell - Böcker

This book is a novel contribution to the ‘practice theory’ turn in International Relations. It looks at practitioners’ approaches to the EU’s foreign policy to its eastern neighbourhood, particularly Russia, and offers a new methodology for capturing practices using the analytical approach of Discursive International Relations and the Discursive Practice Model. Drawing on data from the European Council, the European Commission and the European Parliament’s AFET committee members, the study concludes that EU practitioners are concerned with the collective EU identity, normative and moral duties and collective security interests when considering EU policy towards Russia and other eastern neighbours. This suggest that practitioners are a lot more pragmatic when it comes to this policy area than previously assumed by the vast literature on the EU as a normative power.

Building on the recent initiative to truly globalize the field of international relations, this book provides an innovative interrogation of regionalism. The book applies a globalizing framework to the study of regional worlds in order to move beyond the traditional conception of regionalism, which views regions as competing blocs dominated by great powers. Bringing together a wide range of case studies, the book shows that regions are instead dynamic configurations of social and political identities in which a variety of actors, including the less powerful, interact and partake in regionalization processes and have done so through the centuries.

In this ambitious two-volume open access collection of essays, a diverse group of scholars worldwide reflects on the past, present and future of the (comparative) regionalism research program. Volume I provides building blocks for regionalism studies in the coming years by indicating what a pluralistic theoretical and methodological toolbox to study regions could look like, how disciplinary boundaries can be bridged, and the relevance of comparative regionalism research. In consecutive sections, the chapter authors present their answers to the following guiding questions: What are the global origins of regionalism thinking? How relevant is mainstream theorizing (still)? And, finally, how could/should global regionalism look like? This collection of essays celebrates and highlights the research and scholarly undertakings of the United Nations University Institute on Comparative Regional Integration Studies (UNU-CRIS) on its 25th anniversary.