Contestation and politicisation are two concepts of increasing relevance to European foreign and security policy (CFSP) scholars and practitioners alike. However, reasonable doubts can be raised as regards this growing literature: first, political conflict has always been part of CFSP, and national and European politics have traditionally been at the centre of research in this field. Second, exploring how the two concepts relate to European foreign, security and defence policies is complicated by the fact that foreign affairs more broadly do not meet all the criteria set by the literature on politicisation, which usually requires that some form of mass mobilisation takes place, or at least a high degree of salience.
Contributions to this special issue reflect upon the topics outlined above while covering a diversity of arenas and a wide array of actors at the EU and national levels; as well as both traditional and new policy areas associated with European foreign, security and defence cooperation.
Katja Biedenkopf, Oriol Costa & Magdalena Góra (2021) (eds.) Contestation and Politicization of European Foreign and Security
Cooperation: New realities or same old routine?, European Security, Volume 30, Issue 3, 10.1080/09662839.2021.1964473
