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Welcome to COST Action ENTER

Chair of COST Action ENTER: Prof. Dr. Michèle Knodt

Co-Chair of COST Action ENTER: Prof. Dr. Patrick Müller

EU foreign policy experiences unprecedented turbulences that put key achievements of the European integration project at risk. Externally, the EU’s global environment is characterized by the reconfiguration of power, growing divisions, and the contestation of established liberal order. Simultaneously, the EU’s neighbourhood is increasingly conflict-prone and unstable, triggering migration flows and the proliferation of illiberal values.

Domestically, the EU faces severe internal conflicts, marked by austerity, Brexit, growing nationalism, populism and new protectionism. COST Action ENTER aims to improve our understanding of central properties of EU foreign policy in light of these new realities, focusing on perceptions, communication, contestation. In today’s world, the success of EU foreign policy depends on the EU’s ability to instantaneously respond to stimuli and pressures originating from both the international and the intra-EU levels.

Linking internal and external policy dynamics, the Action has a strong potential for breakthrough scientific developments. A central objective of the action is to derive theoretically informed, policy-relevant advice for the EU’s strategic approach to its international relations, its communication, and for dealing with the interaction between internal and external challenges.

It will generate a step change in how the new realities of EU foreign policy are theorized and addressed. This will be achieved by establishing multi-national, multidisciplinary collaborations at the nexus of policy fields and research communities that have not sufficiently communicated in the past. Substantive efforts to bridge between the academic-practitioner divide are made, to synthesize knowledge, facilitate shared understandings, and inform EU foreign policy.

Photo credits: Banner – Claus Völker

COST Action ENTER Policy Brief No. 5 – A Practitioner’s View: September 2020 – Cultural diplomacy between the European Union and Turkey28/09/2020 - 11:29 am
COST Action ENTER BRIEF No. 5 – A Practitioner’s View / September 2020 – Cultural diplomacy between the European Union and Turkey by Ivanka Vasilevska Despite Turkey being a candidate-state for membership to the EU for many decades, EU-Turkish relations continue to be strained by geopolitical and cultural differences, as is evident by the dispute […]
Softening the surface but hardening the core?06/07/2020 - 9:59 am
Softening the surface but hardening the core? Governing renewable energy in the EU, authors: Jonas J. Schoenefeld and Michèle Knodt Soft law and governance captured the attention of scholars in the 2000s, and new policy challenges and the novel introduction of ‘harder’ elements now drive a (re)turn to these discussions. This article explores the extent […]
Perceptions of EU mediation and mediation effectiveness22/06/2020 - 10:30 am
Perceptions of EU mediation and mediation effectiveness: Comparing perspectives from Ukraine and the EU, authors: Natalia Chaban, Ole Elgström and Michèle Knodt A small but growing literature has started to analyse the European Union (EU) ‘as an effective peacemaker’. We make a contribution to this field by investigating EU mediation effectiveness in the Russia–Ukraine conflict. […]
COST Action ENTER Policy Brief No. 4: June 2020 – Towards the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty Review Conference: EU Policy on Nuclear Non-proliferation12/06/2020 - 2:54 pm
COST Action ENTER BRIEF NO. 4 / June 2020 – Towards the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty Review Conference: EU Policy on Nuclear Non-proliferation by Şebnem Udum This policy brief addresses some of the challenges the European Union faces when dealing with nuclear non-proliferation issues, in particular in the context of the implementation of the Nuclear Non-proliferation […]
COST Action ENTER Policy Brief No. 3: April 2020 – Contestation of EU Foreign Policy: When in Doubt, Do Politics31/03/2020 - 2:43 pm
COST Action ENTER BRIEF NO.3/ April 2020 – Contestation of EU Foreign Policy: When in Doubt, Do Politics by Oriol Costa This policy brief assesses the sources of contestation of EU foreign policy and recommends to the EU to avoid the erosion of expert culture of Council working groups, but to embrace contestation when contestation […]
COST Action ENTER Policy Brief No. 2: February 2020 – The EU’s Peacebuilding: Past, Present, Future25/02/2020 - 11:42 am
COST Action ENTER BRIEF NO.2/ February 2020 – The EU’s Peacebuilding: Past, Present, Future by Münevver Cebeci This policy brief addresses the challenges for the EU in its peacebuilding efforts. Contrary to analyses that blame the EU’s non-unitary nature and young foreign policy, the author argues the EU’s ineffectiveness in peacebuilding is due to its […]