Why study EU foreign policy at all? A response to Keuleers, Fonck and Keukeleire
| Author | Sophie Vanhoonacker,Hylke Dijkstra |
| Published date | 01 June 2017 |
| Date | 01 June 2017 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/0010836716682393 |
| Subject Matter | Rejoinder Article |
https://doi.org/10.1177/0010836716682393
Cooperation and Conflict
2017, Vol. 52(2) 280 –286
© The Author(s) 2016
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DOI: 10.1177/0010836716682393
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Why study EU foreign policy
at all? A response to Keuleers,
Fonck and Keukeleire
Hylke Dijkstra and Sophie Vanhoonacker
Abstract
In an important article on the state of European Union (EU) foreign policy research, Keuleers,
Fonck and Keukeleire show that academics excessively focus on the study of the EU foreign
policy system and EU implementation rather than the consequences of EU foreign policy for
recipient countries. While the article is empirical, based on a dataset of 451 published articles
on EU foreign policy, the normative message is that it is time to stop ‘navel-gazing’ and pay more
attention to those on the receiving end of EU foreign policy. We welcome this contribution, but
wonder why certain research questions have been privileged over others. We argue that this has
primarily to do with the predominant puzzles of the time. We also invite Keuleers, Fonck and
Keukeleire to make a theoretical case for a research agenda with more attention to outside-in
approaches. We conclude by briefly reflecting on future research agendas in EU foreign policy.
Keywords
European Union, foreign policy, research agenda, theory
Introduction
It is regularly observed that more academics study European Union (EU) foreign policy
than there are civil servants to make it work.1 In their contribution to Cooperation and
Conflict, Keuleers et al. (2016) now show that a large proportion of these academics
primarily examine what those civil servants do.
Based on a dataset of 451 articles on EU foreign policy, published in key journals
between 2010 and 2014, they identify three research approaches: first, the ‘inward-look-
ing’ approach which focuses on the EU foreign policy system itself; second, the ‘inside-
out’ approach which assesses the implementation of EU foreign policy; and third, the
‘outside-in’ approach which analyses the consequences of EU foreign policy for recipient
Corresponding author:
Hylke Dijkstra, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Maastricht University, P.O. Box 616,
6200 MD Maastricht, The Netherlands.
Email: h.dijkstra@maastrichtuniversity.nl
682393CAC0010.1177/0010836716682393Cooperation and ConflictDijkstra and Vanhoonacker
research-article2016
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