Foreign Policy

Culture and cultural heritage have long been ignored or pushed into the background when it comes to being considered in foreign and security policy decisions by major world players, including the European Union. However, as the EU’s desired Common Foreign and Security Policy continues to face large hurdles due to indifference and even repulsion towards continued integration and a larger focus on national sovereignty, the governing bodies of the EU have sought new ways to further integration in this field without relying on solely military action or policy. One such way they have found to do this has been through the protection of cultural heritage and, as such, greater support for UNESCO initiatives and programs. Since 2012, global unrest has only grown, especially in the Middle East and North Africa. As a result, more and more cultural heritage sites are being threatened or destroyed by armed conflict. This paper demonstrates through an analysis of changing language, and thus changing objectives, within official EU statements, speeches, and documents, the EU’s changing view about the usefulness of cultural heritage in creating a common foreign and security policy. The underlying belief of this is the thought that by investing in the protection of cultural heritage sites through UNESCO, the EU helps to stabilize tumultuous regions by rebuilding a sense of identity and solidarity. Thus, culture must be brought to the forefront of foreign and security policy for the EU and is a way to continue to grow European integration in this area.

Since being accepted as a candidate in 2005, the Republic of Turkey has been part of erratic accession negotiations with the European Union. While initially hopeful, EU and Turkish narratives around this process have oscillated wildly between three separate states: convergence, cooperation, and divergence. This paper explores the steady changes in these themes and what they mean for Turkey’s public opinion and its future accession negotiations. Through its analysis of these themes, this paper concludes that institutional narratives on accession have a substantial impact on the way accession is viewed by the Turkish public. With this in mind, an exploration of causal links in the narratives of EU and Turkish institutions on the matter are key to determining the path of future negotiations, or perhaps even their cessation. Considering that the success of accession is largely dependent on popular support, the severe divergence in accession narratives has consequences for the future of Turkey’s accession bid. In light of this linkage of public opinion and narratives, it seems clear that the processes of accession actually lead to a culture of count-conduct amongst Turkish leaders and increased the strength of Eurosceptic sentiments, rather than inculcating European values. As such, the process of accession needs to be re-evaluated, instead being replaced with a strategic partnership.

The collapse of Yugoslavia resulted in tremendous conflicts across Western Balkans territories. Since the mid 2000s, the EU has become a key security and stability provider in these countries in order to help in the process of reconciliation and prosperity, while also offering annexation to the EU, upon the condition of the fulfillment of basic criteria. Hence, in 2005 the EU's relations with the Western Balkans states and territories transformed from the "External Relations" to the "Enlargement" policy segment. As of 2015, Albania, North Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia are officially recognized as state candidates for membership, whereas Kosovo and Bosnia and Herzegovina are now potential candidates. Specifically, with the Stabilization and Association Agreement with Kosovo, the EU closes the circle of such agreements with all states of the Western Balkans. Considering that the accession of Kosovo to the European Union is finally part of the future enlargement agenda of the EU much has been done on the side of Kosovo towards this direction with the expectation to fulfill all needed criteria. Hence, the aim of this paper is to briefly analyze Kosovo’s path towards joining the EU, with a special focus on the implementation of the SAA, ERA and IPA, and an overall scrutiny upon the differences of SAA’s of the aforementioned states. The paper is mainly written based on secondary sources and data gathered from the Government of Kosovo.

The traditional notion of security has changed significantly since the end of the Cold War. We now live in a world where war is no longer being fought primarily against nations but within nations. The concept of human security put forward by the United Nations is viewed through the lens of the individual rather than the state. By having a right to the “freedom from fear” and “freedom from want”, this paper examines how EU foreign and defense policies have evolved since human security and the Responsibility to Protect have emerged. This paper analyzes both concepts against the five main documents of EU defense policy, Common Foreign and Security Policy (1992); European Security and Defense Policy (1999); European Security Strategy (2003); Common Security and Defense Policy (2009); and the European Union Global Strategy (2016). By examining both the literature and a real case study on how the EU reacted to Libya, this paper concludes that both concepts have had profound impacts on the evolution in EU foreign and defense policy.