Call for Papers: COST Action ENTER WG 2 and WG 4 – Workshop “External Influence on EU Foreign Policy”, January 17, 2022

“External Influence on EU Foreign Policy: Assessing Challenges to the EU’s International Coherence”,
January 17, 2022, 9:00 – 18:00 CET

Workshop organized by COST Action ENTER Working Group 2 (Perception and Communication), and Working Group 4 (Relations); Convenors: Michèle Knodt and Patrick Müller

In times of decreasing multilateralism and growing nationalisms the EU’s cohesion in the foreign and security policy is immanently important on the international level for European states. In both academic and public discussions this topic is astonishingly under-reflected. Thus the overall goal of the contributions to the workshop is to discuss and evaluate systematically external influences on the EU, its effects as well as to develop potential strategy how to deal with these influences. Contributions may focus on:

  • Who are the addressees of the external influence by third states – member states, EU institutions, European and national political parties, social movements, think tanks?
  • What is the target of the influence of third states – EU norms, narratives, policy, politics, coherence, unity, strategies?
  • How do third states perceive the potential for influencing the EU and how does the EU/how do people in the EU perceive the level of influence – perceptions of national/European elites, experts, civil society, the broad public, images, narratives?
  • What pathways and mechanisms of influencing can be identified, e.g. public diplomacy, communication strategies, political and economic pressure?
  • What are appropriate measures to promote the cohesion within the EU – counter-diplomacy, regulative, investment, new narrative?

Please send your paper to: Michèle Knodt (knodt@pg.tu-darmstadt.de) and Patrick Müller (patrick.mueller@da-vienna.ac.at). The deadline for paper submissions is December 20, 2021.

You can find the official Call for Papers here.