Swiss politics has too many veto players for swift decisions. It is out of the interplay of these contending forces that any change in its foreign policy will come.
Serrano emphasises the importance of domestic politics in shaping policy decisions at the EU level, an influence that has not always been empirically justified.
The EU lacks a common foreign policy to tackle immigration. Thus, national policies fill this gap. For this reason, political initiatives at the local level are crucial.
Today, refugees are increasingly at risk in the context of a European approach to migration which has once again made refugees deportable. This trend requires attention.
There is a gap between high theory-driven expectations and the modest realities of civil society participation.
EU member states took the right decision by acting swiftly in CAR in January — their hesitation now not only risks the EU’s credibility but a deepening of the crisis.
EU measures to mitigate the ‘democratic deficit’ have been largely insufficient to date, rather the role of deliberation should be to include alternative discourses.
In Ukraine, Euromaidan protesters call for democracy. Their disappointment with the EU is growing as attempts to negotiate a way out of the crisis have largely failed.
The debate on EU foreign policy must contain both the theoretical analysis as well as the in-depth “heart-searching” discussions between actors, scholars and practitioners involved in the CSDP.
Cohesive epistemic communities are more likely to be persuasive diplomatic actors, achieving security goals that would have otherwise been very difficult if left to the member states alone.
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