Navigating the Iranian Nuclear File through Turbulent Institutional Waters. Logics of Inclusion and Exclusion in the EU’s Foreign Policy Government

For more than a decade now the EU’s High Representative for foreign affairs is closely involved in the non-proliferation policy towards Iran. He is in this outstanding position thanks to an UN mandate that legitimizes him as the coordinator of the Great Powers in the nuclear negotiations. However, his legitimacy also stems from an EU internal dynamic that questions the dominant neo-institutionalist perception of EU integration. In fact, it is not the unidirectional and homogenous establishment of common norms put forward by neo-institutionalists but a logic of inclusion and exclusion that enables the High Representative to appear as a credible actor at the international stage. The approach adopted in order to illustrate this process combines a sociology of European External Action Service (EEAS) and Member states diplomats with an interactionist perspective. Based upon 30 semi-structured interviews, the analysis of organization charts and policy documents, this sociology of the European diplomatic service reconstructs the resources and representations of EEAS diplomats in charge of the Iran file as well as their discourses and practices. The analysis of their professional careers and their interactions with Member states diplomats brings to light that the EEAS integrates ever closer to the diplomatic services of the Big three (France, Germany, UK), while in the meantime it disassociates from the other Member states. Thus, this sociological perspective on the EEAS illustrates the highly politicized struggles that led to accession of the High Representative to Great Power diplomacy at the expensive of the representation of all Member states.