Saturday, April 16, 2016
Concerto A (DoubleTree by Hilton Philadelphia Center City)
This paper focuses on two major developments and their ongoing implications for the EU as an international actor: the arrival of military officers among EU institutions with the launch of the CSDP, and the creation of the EEAS following the ratification of the Treaty of Lisbon. In our research, we study through the lenses of constructivism and political sociology how both socialization mechanisms and bureaucratic interests are at play in determining the positions and views held about the EU, its CSDP and crisis management tools by the people working in the EEAS and four Commission DGs. Although the role of member states is clearly central in determining the shape of -- and the direction taken by -- the CSDP, the increasing importance of the EU structures themselves requires taking seriously how their personnel sees European defence and EU external action instruments. We show that the interactions between the aforementioned military officers and their civilian environment is characterized by mutual cognitive transfers of representations and norms, but that these transfers are to an extent conditioned, and sometimes limited, by the institutional positions and affiliations of the civil servants under study. Based on more than fifty interviews with EEAS and Commission civilian and military officials, our research allows for a better understanding of some of the factors contributing respectively to change and stability within EU institutions with regards to the EU's external action.
