AB’nin “jeopolitik uyanışı” içinde aktörlüğü nasıl açıklanabilir ? İsrail-Filistin çatışması ve Avrupa Birliği’nin etkinliği ve uyumu

Year 2024, Volume: 51 Issue: 2, 261 - 280, 27.12.2024

Özlem Tür , Başak Alpan

Abstract

2010’ların ortalarından beri Avrupa Birliği’nin dış politika perspektifi ile ilgili devam eden iki süreçten bahsedilebilir. Bunlardan ilki AB’nin aktif bir şekilde bazı çatışmalara dahil olması (ve bazılarından da kendisini uzak tutması), ikincisi ise AB dış politika ve komşuluk siyasetinde artan jeopolitik vurgudur. Bu yeni “jeopolitik yönelim” AB’nin kriz durumlarındaki genel duruşunu ve dış politika aktörlüğü ile ilgili kendisi ile ilgili ortaya koyduğu tanımlamalara önemli bir meydan okumadır. Bu tartışmanın ötesinde, AB’nin uzun zamandır süregelen çatışmalarda oynadığı aktörlük ile ilgili de devam eden sorular bulunmaktadır. Tüm çabalarına ve zaman içinde iyileştirilmiş yeteneklerine rağmen AB’nin komşu bölgelerinde devam eden çatışmalara dahil olma konusunda niçin bu derece seçici olduğu merak konusu olmaya devam etmektedir. Bu makalenin temel argümanı AB dış politikası ile ilgili kullanılan teorik yaklaşımların (örneğin “normatif güç Avrupa” gibi) fazla iyimser olduğu ve AB’nin komşu bölgelerdeki aktörlüğünün belirli yönlerine odaklanmayı zorlaştırdığıdır. Bu makalede AB’nin bu bölgelerdeki aktörlüğü AB’nin etkinliği ve uyumu açısından ele alınmaktadır.

Keywords

Avrupa Birliği, AB dış politikası, AB dış politika aktörlüğü, Filistin meselesi

What accounts for the EU’s actorness within its “geopolitical awakening”?: The Israeli-Palestinian conflict and effectiveness and cohesion of the European Union

Abstract

Since mid-2010s, two concomitant processes have been going on in terms of the EU’s perspective on its foreign policy: The EU’s relatively proactive inclusion into some particular conflicts (and its deliberate self-exclusion in some others) on one hand and the rise of the geopolitical tone of the EU foreign policy and neighbourhood policy on the other. This recent “geopolitical turn” challenged the Union’s predominant position in crisis situations as well as its broader self-representation about its own foreign policy actorness. On top of this, there has been many question marks about the EU’s actorness in terms of its involvement in protracted conflicts. Despite good intentions and progressively improved capabilities, it is intriguing why the EU had been selective in the management of some territorial conflicts in its neighbourhood. The main argument of the paper is that current mainstream theoretical approaches of the European foreign policy, such as “normative power Europe”, are overly optimistic and do not allow to put in focus certain dynamics the understanding of which are crucial to understanding the shortcomings of the EU’s actorness in terms of the Israeli-Palestine conflict, where the actorness is captured throughout the paper in terms of the EU’s effectiveness and coherence.

Keywords

EU actorness, Israeli-Palestine Conflict, Normative Power Europe, geopolitics

References

• ACHARYA, A. (2004), “How Ideas Spread: Whose Norms Matter? Norm Localization and Institutional Change in Asian Regionalism’, International Organization 58 (2), pp. 239–75.
• ACHARYA, A. (2009), Whose Ideas Matter? Agency and Power in Asian Regionalism, Ithaca: Cornell University Press
• AKGÜL-AÇIKMEŞE, S. and ÖZEL, S. (2024), “EU Policy towards the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: The Limitations of Mitigation Strategies”, The International Spectator, 59 (1), pp. 59-78.
• ALPAN, B. (2023), “A Gaze at Narratives: What Future for the EU’s Neighborhood Policy?”, METU Studies in Development, 50, pp. 457-476.
• ALTUNIŞIK, M. (2008), “EU Foreign Policy and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: How Much of an Actor?”, European Security, 17 (1), pp. 105-121.
• BARROSSO, J.M.D. (2013), New Narrative for Europe, Speech at the Opening of the Warsaw New Narrative for Europe General Assembly, 11 July.
• BICKERTON, C. (2011), “Towards a Social Theory of EU Foreign and Security Policy”, Journal of Common Market Studies, 49 (1), pp. 171–190.
• BONO, G. (2004), “Introduction: The Role of the EU in External Crisis Management”, International Peacekeeping 11 (3), pp. 395–403.
• BOURIS, D. and PAPADIMITRIOUS, D. (2019), “The EU and Contested Statehood in its Near Abroad: Europeanisation, Actorness and State-building”, Geopolitics, 25 (2), pp. 273-293.
• BÖRZEL, T.A., and RISSE, T. (2012), “From Europeanisation to Diffusion: Introduction”, West European Politics, 35 (1), pp. 1–19.
• BRETHERTON, C., and VOGLER, J. (2006), The European Union as a Global Actor, London and New York: Routledge.
• CADIER, D. (2019), “The Geopoliticization of the EU’s Eastern Partnership”, Geopolitcs.
• CHECKEL, J.T. (2005), “International Institutions and Socialization in Europe: Introduction and Framework”, International Organization, 59 (4), pp. 801–26.
• COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION (2002), “Declaration by the European Union on the Middle East”.
• COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION (2006), “Presidency Conclusions on the Middle East Peace Process”.
• COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION (2016), “Shared Vision, Common Action: A Stronger Europe”, European Union Global Strategy.
• DELAERE, V. and VAN SCHAIKL, G. (2012), “EU Representation in the OPCW after Lisbon: Still Waiting for Brussels”, Clingendael Institute.
• DRIESKENS, E. (2017), “Golden or Gilded Jubilee? A Research Agenda for Actorness”, Journal of European Public Policy, 24 (10), pp. 1534–1546
• EEAS (2016), “Shared Vision, Common Action- A Stronger Europe: A Global Strategy for the European Union’s Foreign and Security Policy”, June.
• EEAS (2022), “Europe in the Interregnum: our Geopolitical Awakening after Ukraine”, Op-Ed, 24 March. EUROPEAN COMMISSION (2013), “Guidelines on the eligibility of Israeli entities and their activities in the territories occupied by Israel since June 1967 for grants, prizes and financial insturments funded by the EU from 2014 onwards”, Official Journal of the European Union.
• EUROPEAN COMMISSION (2019), “Speech by President-Elect von der Leyen in the European Parliament Plenary on the Occasion of the Presentation of her College of Commissioners and Their Programme”, Press Corner, 27 November.
• EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT (2012), “European Parliament Resolution on the Situation in Gaza”.
• EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT (2019), “Hearing of Josep Borrell Fontelles, High Representative/Vice President-designate of the European Commission”, Multi-Media Centre, 7 October.
• GARTON-ASH, T., KRASTEV, I., LEONARD, M. (2023), “Living in an a la carte World: What European Policymakers Should Learn from Global Public Opinion”, Policy Brief, ECFR, November.
• GINSBERG, R. H. (2001), The European Union in International Politics: Baptism by Fire, Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield
• HARTEL, A. (2023), “EU Actorness in the Conflict in Ukraine: Between ‘Comprehensive Ambitions and the Contradictory Realities of an ‘Enlarged’ Technical Role”, Ethnopolitics, 22 (3), pp. 271-289.
• HILLION, C. (2008), “Tous Pour Un, Un Pour Tous! Coherence in the External Relations of the European Union” in M. Cremona, Developments in EU External Relations Law, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 10-36.
• JORGENSEN, K. E., OBERTHÜR, S. and SHAHIN, J. (2011), “Introduction: Assessing the EU’s Performance in International Institutions”, Journal of European Integration, 33, pp. 599-620.
• JUPILLE, J., and CAPORASO, J. (1998), “States, Agency, and Rules: The European Union in Global Environmental Politics” in C. Rhodes (ed.), The European Union in the World Community, pp. 213–29. Boulder, Co: Lynne Rienner.
• KALDOR, M., MARTIN, M., and SELCHOW, S. (2007), “Human Security: A New Strategic Narrative for Europe.” International Affairs, 83 (2), pp. 273–288.
• KEUKELEIRE, S. and MACNAUGHTAN, J. (2008), The Foreign Policy of the European Union, London: Palgrave
• KONECNY, M. (2024), The EU’s Response to the Gaza War is a Tale of Contradiction and Division: In the face of worst ever Israeli-Palestinian violence, Europe’s selective moralism has also led to strategic blindness, The Cairo Review of Global Affairs, 49.
• LAATKINAINEN, K V., SMITH, K. E. (2006), “Introduction: The European Union at the United Nations: Leader, Partner or Failure?” in K. V. Laatikainen and K. E. Smith (eds.), The European Union at the United Nations, London: Palgrave Macmillan UK, pp. 1-23.
• LAVENEX, S., and SCHIMMELFENNIG, F. (2011), “EU Democracy Promotion in the Neighbourhood: From Leverage to Governance”, Democratization, 18 (4), pp. 885–909.
• LECHA, E. S. (2024), “Cracks in EU Foreign Policy: Exposing Divisions over Palestine and Israel amidst the Gaza War, IEMed.
• LECOCQ, S. (2020), “EU Foreign Policy and Hybrid Actors in the Middle East: Ready for Geopolitical Contestation?”, Global Affairs, 6 (4-5), pp. 363-380.
• MANNERS, I. (2002), ‘Normative Power Europe: a Contradiction in Terms?, Journal of Common Market Studies, 40 (2), pp. 235--258.
• MÜLLER, P. (2012), EU Foreign Policymaking and the Middle East Conflict: The Europeanisation of National Foreign Policy. New York: Routledge.
• MÜLLER, P. (2013), “Europe’s Foreign Policy and the Middle East’s Peace Process: The Construction of the EU’s Actorness in Conflict Resolution”, Perspectives on European Politics and Society, 14 (1), pp. 20-35
• MÜLLER, P. (2019), “Normative Power Europe and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: The EU’s Peacebuilding Narrative Meets Local Narratives”, European Security, 28 (3), pp. 251-267.
• NITOIU, C., and SUS, M. (2019), “Introduction: The Rise of Geopolitics in the EU’s Approach in its Eastern Neighborhood”, Geopolitics, 24 (1), pp. 1-19.
• NOLL, G. (2024), Transatlantic Impacts of President Trump’s Middle East Policy, The German Marshall Fund of the United States.
• NOUTCHEVA, G. (2020), “Contested Statehood and EU Actorness in Kosovo, Abkhazia and Western Sahara”, Geopolitics, 25 (2), pp. 449-471.
• OLSEN, G. R. (2009), “The EU and Military Conflict Management in Africa: For the Good of Africa or Europe?”, International Peacekeeping, 16 (2), pp. 245-260.
• PERSSON, A. (2015), “The EU and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict 1971 – 2013. In Pursuit of a Just Peace”, Lexngton Books, p. 119.
• PRODROMIDOU, A., GKAKIS, P., KUSHNIR, I., KILKEY, M. and STRUMINA, F (2019), “Introduction” in a. Prodromidou and P. Gkakis (eds.), Along the Balkan Route: The Impact of the post-2014 ‘Migrant Crisis’ on the EU’s South-East Periphery, Berlin: Konrad-Adenauer Stiftung.
• RIFKIN, J. (2004) The European Dream: How Europe's Vision of the Future is Quietly Eclipsing the American Dream, Cambridge: Polity.
• SCHIMMELFENNIG, F., and SEDELMEIER, U. (2004), “Governance by Conditionality: EU Rule Transfer to the Candidate Countries of Central and Eastern Europe”, Journal of European Public Policy, 11 (4), pp. 661–79.
• SJOSTEDT, G. (1977), The External Role of the European Community, Farnborough: Saxon House.
• SMITH, K. E. (2010), “The EU in the World: Future Research Agendas” in W. Paterson, N. Nugent and M. Egan (eds.), Research Agendas in EU Studies: Stalking the Elephant, Basingstoke: Palgrave, pp. 329-353.
• SMITH, M. (2013), “Still Rooted in Maastricht: EU External Relations as a ‘Third-Generation Hybrid’”, in T. Christiansen and S. Duke (eds.), The Maastricht Treaty: Second Thoughts after 20 Years, 1st Edition, Routledge: London, pp. 15-32
• SOLER I LECHA, E. (2024), “Crack in EU Foreign Policy: Exposing Divisions over Palestine and Israel amidst the Gaza War”, Israel-Palestine Conflict, p. 121.
• STETTER, S. (2004), “Cross-Pillar Politics: Functional Unity and Institutional Fragmentation of EU Foreign Policies”, Journal of European Public Policy, 11 (4), pp. 720 – 739.
• UNITED NATIONS (2009), “Goldstone report on the Gaza conflict of 2008-2009”, statement issued by members of the UN fact-finding mission to Gaza, May-September.
• WEBB, J. (2018), “Resolving Contestation through Discursive Engagement: towards the Contextual Diffusion of EU Rule of Law Norms?”, Southeast European and Black Sea Studies, 18 (3), pp. 401-418.
• WESSEL, R. A. (2000), “The Inside Looking out: Consistency and Delimitation in EU External Relations”, Common Market Law Review, 37, pp. 1135-1171.
• WIENER, A. (2004), “Contested Compliance: Interventions on the Normative Structure of World Politics”, European Journal of International Relations, 10 (2), pp. 189–234.
• WIENER, A. (2007), “Contested Meanings of Norms: A Research Framework”, Comparative European Politics, 5 (1), pp. 1–17.
• WIENER, A. (2014), A Theory of Contestation, Berlin and Heidelberg: Springer.
• WYDRA, D. (2018), “Between Normative Visions and Pragmatic Possibilities: The European Politics of State Recognition”, Geopolitics, 25 (2), pp. 315-345.