Nicolas Fromm – författare

An unprecedented number of people is currently on the move seeking refuge in Europe. Large parts of European societies respond with anxiety and mistrust to the influx of people. Nationalist, anti-migrant parties from Slovakia over Germany to the UK have gained increasing support among the electorate and challenge the political mainstream. Europe is struggling how to respond. While the search for solutions is ongoing one pattern seems to be emerging: Fortress Europe is in the making. Unfortunately, few of these discussions and measures consider the structural root causes and dynamics of migration, the motives of migrants or societal challenges more thoroughly. This book seeks to address this deficit. Taking migration and asylum policies as a starting point, it analyses the various dimensions underpinning migration. In doing so, it identifies why receiving countries are in many ways part of the problem. To eschew an overtly Euro-centric perspective and stimulate a debate between science and politics, it contains contributions by academics and practitioners alike from both shores of the Mediterranean.

Nicolas Fromm explores norm-based strategies small states can use to distinguish themselves internationally in order to compensate for their lesser geopolitical weight. Using the example of Qatar, the author shows that such strategies might include a sort of norm entrepreneurship which goes beyond the advocacy of universal norms and implies the development of genuinely new norms (‘norm crafting’) in pursuit of regional political influence. To shed light on the stunning rise of Qatar from a background actor to a protagonist in international diplomacy, the case study analyses the distinctive use of norm crafting in the country’s Middle East diplomacy under the reign of Emir Hamad (1995-2013). To unfold the potential of strategic normative innovation, Qatar seems to have imitated the attitudes and attributes of established norm entrepreneurs such as international organizations.