Foreign ministries and limits to organisational learning in Central Eastern Europe

Abstract

Joining the European Union (EU) has had a transformative effect for the foreign policies of the new member states and the Ministries of Foreign Affairs (MFAs). There is a growing body of literature that analyses Europeanisation of foreign policies of EU member states as a result of their participation in Common Foreign and Security Policy. At the same time, the significance of learning in bringing change in foreign policy remains underexplored avenue of international relations (IR) and foreign policy analysis (FPA). This article demonstrates how learning processes can contribute to the processes of Europeanisation and shows what are the possible inhibitors to institutionalisation of the lessons learnt at individual level.

Keywords:

• Poland
• European Union
• Europeanisation
• East-Central Europe
• Eastern Europe
• democratisation

Notes on contributor

Karolina Pomorska is a Marie Curie Fellow at the University of Cambridge, Department of Politics and International Studies and a Visiting Scholar at Johns Hopkins University, Centre for Transatlantic Relations in Washington, DC. She was awarded a PhD at Loughborough University and holds a masters degree in Politics from the University of Gdansk (Poland) and a Master of Arts in European Public Affairs from the University of Maastricht and the European Institute of Public Administration. She is currently on leave from Maastricht University in the Netherlands, where she has been an Assistant Professor since 2006.

Notes

1 For references and discussion of this literature, see the next section of this paper.

2 Examples include: Political and Security Committee (PSC); Committee of Permanent Representatives (COREPER II); and the General Affairs and External Relations Council (GAERC), split into two formations (Foreign Affairs Council [FAC] and General Affairs Council [GAC]) after the Lisbon Treaty entered into force.

3 The major contributions are the edited book by Christopher Hill, as well as some older work: the two volumes edited by Christopher Hill (1983, 1996), book edited by Manners and Whitman (2000), a volume by Wong and Hill (2011) and, more recently, a book edited by Baun and Marek (2013). Tonra (2001) conducted a comparative study of foreign policy Europeanisation in Ireland, Denmark, and the Netherlands. Torreblanca (2001) applied Europeanisation to Spanish foreign policy, Wong (2006) to French foreign policy, Alecu de Flers (2012) to neutral states, and Gross (2009) to crisis resolution. When it comes to specifically analysing institutional change in foreign ministries, comparative studies were edited by Hocking (1999) and, later, Hocking and Spence (2002). Allen and Oliver (2006) have published on Europeanisation of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Some methodological issues were dealt with by Major and Pomorska (2005). For a literature overview, see: Alecu de Flers and Muller (2012).

4 For conceptual reviews, see: Bennet and Howlett (1992); and Kemp and Weehuizen (2003).

5 Another difficulty, noted in the literature, stems from a potential large number of intervening variables and alternative explanations, see, for example, Zito and Schout (2009, 1104).

6 This interaction between an individual and the organisation has been a focus of literature on organisational learning theories. Discussion on the distinction between “deep” and “shallow” Europeanisation of administrative structures can also be found. For example, see Jordan (2003).

7 Interviews in Brussels 2005, 2011, and 2012.

8 Interview in Bratislava 2012.

9 Interview in Warsaw 2005.

10 Interview in Brussels, 2005.

11 Interviews in Brussels, 2011 and 2012.

12 Interview in Brussels, 2011.

13 Interview in Brussels, 2005.

14 As one official claimed, it took a year to see that Brussels was “not the place to make speeches to anyone, but to work out common positions” (Interview in Warsaw, 2005).

15 Interview in Brussels, 2013.

16 Interview in Brussels, 2005.

17 Interview in Brussels 2011.

18 Interview in Brussels, 2006.

19 Interview in Brussels, 2009.

20 Interview in Brussels, 2009. These assurances on their own apparently caused some surprise among the interviewed officials.

21 Interview in Brussels, 2009.

22 Interview in Brussels, 2011.

23 Interviews in Brussels, 2005 and 2009.

24 Interviews in Brussels, 2005.

25 Interview in Brussels, 2011.

26 Interview in Brussels, 2011.

27 Interviews in Warsaw, January 2011.

28 Interview in Warsaw, January 2011. These rotations were conducted before the six-month “freeze” on rotations before the Polish Presidency.

29 Interview in Brussels, 2008.

30 Interview in Brussels, 2005.