Foreign Policy towards Latin America in Europe: A Comparative Study

Trüb, Bettina

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URL:	https://ub-madoc.bib.uni-mannheim.de/29894
URN:	urn:nbn:de:bsz:180-madoc-298947
Dokumenttyp:	Dissertation
Erscheinungsjahr:	2012
Ort der Veröffentlichung:	Mannheim
Verlag:	Universität Mannheim
Hochschule:	Universität Mannheim
Gutachter:	Rittberger, Bertold
Datum der mündl. Prüfung:	26 April 2012
Sprache der Veröffentlichung:	Englisch
Einrichtung:	Fakultät für Sozialwissenschaften > Politische Wissenschaft, Quantitative Sozialwissenschaftliche Methoden (Gschwend 2007-)
Fachgebiet:	320 Politik
Normierte Schlagwörter (SWD):	Außenpolitik , Lateinamerika , Deutschland , Spanien , Großbritannien , Internationale Beziehungen
Freie Schlagwörter (Englisch):	Foreign Policy Analysis , Europe , Latin America , Germany , Spain , UK , Comparative Analysis , Development policy , European foreign policy
Abstract:	This dissertation seeks to uncover the origins of EU Member States’ divergent Latin America policies, as well as their interaction with the EU’s strategy towards the region. While the EU is attempting to create a common policy towards Latin America, Member States’ approaches to the region vary, thus hampering a coherent European policy. In order to analyse the origins of such differences, Spain, the UK, and Germany are chosen as influential Member States endowed with distinct national policies towards Latin America. The project begins by systematically mapping the variation in policy activity towards the region on behalf of the countries under study, using fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) in an innovative fashion to create an index of foreign policy activity. I then select two policy areas for further study: development policy and the interaction between national policy towards Latin America and the EU’s strategy vis-à-vis the region. Situated within a Foreign Policy Analysis (FPA) approach and based on an extended liberal theoretical account, the investigation develops a framework to shed light on Latin America policy-making in Europe. Empirically, the project is based on a series of semi-structured elite interviews carried out at national Ministries of Foreign Affairs as well as Development Ministries and Agencies. This evidence is complemented with further interviews of EU officials and Latin American diplomats, text analysis of government documents, and OECD data. The study finds that domestic political and economic interests account for a great deal of foreign policy activity towards Latin America in Europe. However, both in development policy and in the interaction between national and EU policy other variables, including ideational factors, also play a role. The various explanatory factors interact with one another in unique ways, thus producing country-specific policy outcomes.