Bringing IR Back In: the European Union and the World

The series of crises that Europe has gone through in the last decade had significant implications from an International Relations perspective. They have put significant pressure on the EU’s external relations, thus challenging the role of the EU and the way that it seeks to influence policy-making abroad. Crises have also revealed important discontent among public opinions and tensions between the member-states. International cooperation among EU countries, and between the EU and the World, will remain a challenge for the years to come. Externally, from Libya to Syria and Ukraine, the refugee crisis, tensions with Russia and Turkey, and the destabilisation brought by the Trump administration in the transatlantic relationships there are many pressing questions that the EU should address. Internally, the Euro-crisis and more recently, Brexit, have created tensions and uncertainty with respect to the EU project, and will entail repercussions on the entire EU system of international relations. However, these crises also offer opportunities for change and revision, as illustrated by recent moves in the field of defence cooperation. In this challenging and changing environment, scholars are invited to explore empirical developments to enrich their theoretical toolkit and account for relations between the member states and European foreign policies. This section aims to bring back International Relations (IR) theories and foreign policy analysis approaches in the study of old and new puzzles in EU studies. Conversely, it hopes to specify the contribution that the study of European foreign policies in the development of IR and foreign policy analysis. Classical perspectives as well as newer approaches focusing on practices, narratives, or emotions that have gained traction in the IR and FPA literatures, are welcome to offer new insights on International Relations in and of the EU. This section invites panels and papers considering these aspects, from a variety of theoretical, methodological and disciplinary perspectives.