The EU’s common foreign policy and the Korean Peninsula: Testing theorized causal mechanisms which led to the EU’s common foreign policy change towards the Korean Peninsula in 2003
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2022-08-15
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en
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Abstract
The Common European Foreign and Security institutional framework (CFSP) has been in continuous development. The EU has been active on the Korean Peninsula by offering humanitarian and economic aid to the Democratic Republic of Korea (DPRK) as part of the CFSP. However, the EU’s common foreign policy towards the Korean Peninsula changed drastically starting from 2003. The aim of this study is to test which theory explains the EU’s common foreign policy change towards the Korean Peninsula with the most confidence. From an Intergovernmentalist point of view the national preferences of the strongest European powers and the EU countries with the most expertise on the Korean Peninsula have mainly influenced the policy change. An Institutionalist point of view explains that path dependency, agent-principal theory and spillover theory of European integration leads to the European Commission independently changing EU foreign policy towards the Korean Peninsula when it sees fit. A Liberalist point of view emphasized the international system of power relations which leads to the EU member states and the EU to change its common foreign policy towards the Korean Peninsula based on the international system. The method of process tracing helps to test the three theorized causal mechanisms. Testing the evidence and evaluating the mechanisms concludes that the liberalist theorized causal mechanism explains EU common foreign policy towards the Korean Peninsula with the most confidence. This thesis therefore indicates that a Liberalist theoretical point of view explains the EU common foreign policy change towards the Korean Peninsula in 2003.
Keywords: EU; Korean Peninsula; Intergovernmentalism; Institutionalism; liberalism;
Process Tracing; Causal Mechanisms; Policy Change
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Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen