Westlessness? Challenges for the EU’s Soft Power Approach

The West claims to be an economic and political power. However, its moral authority seems increasingly pilloried in many places. Some political scientists even speak of “Westlessness”: populism, nationalism, right-wing extremism, terrorism and democratic fatigue are some of the symptoms. This disunity of many people in Western industrialised nations is nowhere more evident than in relation to the contested topic of immigration. It polarises societies, as it is precisely here that legal convictions clash with ethical and moral ones and subsequently fail in the attempt to create Realpolitik. This article will trace the events that led to the neologism “Westlessness” being coined, before it will contextualise responses from within and without to this diagnosis and use the EU’s responses to the so-called refugee crisis from 2015 until the present as a test case for its future in solidarity and unity.

The Great Game of the twenty-first century: Can Europe compete?

ESAANZ ESSAY PRIZE WINNERWith China’s Belt and Road Initiative in full swing, this paper identifies a new “Great Game” in the Eurasian heartland. However, rather than the geopolitical chess of the nineteenth century, the new game is wei qi. In a process of gradual encirclement and subtle coercion, China is outplaying the EU on the Eurasian continent while avoiding direct confrontation. Following the logic of wei qi, China has shown a tendency to occupy the spaces that the EU has neglected – namely the Balkans and the East Mediterranean. Yet the game has not been won yet. Recent crises have undermined China’s global image, and hitherto overeager Eastern European countries are now acting with more caution towards Chinese investors. The EU can be an equal player, but it must do more to “bring along” the struggling economies in its periphery, while counterbalancing China’s influence with alternative partnerships in the Middle East and Asia.

Evaluating the EU as a Global Leader in International Development

ESAANZ ESSAY PRIZE WINNERAs the second-largest economy in the world and as the largest provider of development assistance, the EU is a major actor and agenda-setter in international development. This paper seeks to examine the tools used by the EU in providing assistance and the ways in which its approach to development are different to those adopted by other major actors. The EU's use of ODA and market access are distinguished as two major tools employed by the Union to promote its vision for development. Major challenges to the EU's pre-eminence in the field are also outlined, particularly focusing on challenge arising from the emergence of the Chinese model of development assistance. Drawing on reports produced by the European Commission and academic studies, therefore, this paper finds that while there are inherent shortfalls in its approach, with strong normative underpinnings and a long-term oriented approach, the EU remains a successful and prominent actor in international development.

The appearance of bias in international investment arbitrators and analysis of potential impediments to bias in the European Union’s proposal for a multilateral investment court

ESAANZ ESSAY PRIZE WINNERInternational investment arbitration is in a controversial state. While the systems put into place by various treaties allow an investor to protect their investments directly by initiating proceedings against a government, claims of arbitrator bias are supported by the fact that arbitrators are appointed by the parties. There are transparency concerns which contribute to arbitrators being biased towards investors from developed countries. The regime of international investment arbitration is heading towards either abolition or reform. The European Union, being the partner to more investment treaties than any other country, proposes the creation of a multilateral investment court. As a structured arbitration court, there may be less bias than the current regime of investment arbitration as proceedings would be more transparent and open to the public, binding precedent would leave less grey area in decisions and add consistency to rulings, and judges no longer being appointed by the parties removes any incentive to rule in favour of their appointing party to secure future appointments. Together with an appeals system, this proposed structure purports to be a positive change in ISDS. However as the essay will show, this approach is not likely to be attractive to the majority of states who are interested in protecting their right to govern. These issues will need to be addressed if the investment court proposal is going to gain support.

Building an EU identity: Policy development at the EU-level – An overview of the current state

The EU has, belatedly perhaps, engaged with the issue of building an EU identity by setting up various initiatives aimed at building a sense of civic society across Europe and hence of greater citizen identification with the EU. This article analyses EU policy formulations from the 1970s through to the very different conditions of the past decade. It also discusses the process undertaken by the EU institutions in order to establish the levels to which and the ways in which its citizens understand and ‘feel’ themselves to be members of the EU on a personal and individual as well as social and cultural level, if at all. The aim of the article is to establish whether this is considered sufficient for the ongoing operation of the EU, or, if not, what is lacking.

COVID Meets Volvo: The Swedish Public Health Approach to Coronavirus

Sweden has been considered both pioneer and pariah in regard to its approach to the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 and its pandemic disease, COVID-19. While much of Europe went into economic hibernation and rigid lockdown in the first wave of novel coronavirus infections in the spring of 2020, Sweden kept its borders, bars, restaurants, schools, gyms etc. open. Organised children’s sporting arrangements were also encouraged, on the basis that socialising and physical activity outweighed the risks posed by COVID-19 to children. Public transportation could still be freely used. Masks were not worn. This paper examines the often controversial tenets of the Swedish public health response to COVID-19, and how widely it has appealed to public health experts and officials in Europe and beyond. Debates within the country are also discussed. What it shows is that, despite rising levels of infection in a second wave in Europe and concessions that it might have even failed, the Swedish model is being adopted by stealth and admired from afar.

Europe United in Diversity—An Analogical Hermeneutics Perspective

At a moment when a new crisis threatens Europe—a crisis including, among other factors, COVID-19, a faltering economy, immigration and Brexit—the European Union (EU) motto of ‘Europe united in diversity’ would appear progressively less attainable. This paper submits that the European ideal is still both desirable and possible through fostering of political unity at the constitutional (regime) level by using the notions of analogical state and analogical culture, and at the community level by enabling public sphere secularity and relational interculturalism. These concepts envisage the EU in a more flexible manner, in favour of policies enabling further European integration.

Rights and the post-Brexit agenda: rights protection and institutional inadequacy in the United Kingdom

The issue of protection of rights in a post-Brexit UK has been largely absent from either the final rounds of EU/UK negotiations or the internal UK debate, other than in regard to Northern Ireland and citizen rights. The UK will leave the EU with little certainty as to how various rights, now ‘brought home’, will be protected and enforced. The protection of rights in the UK has been dependent on a multi-layered framework including EU institutions. The UK’s withdrawal from the EU will produce gaps in this overall institutional framework. Rights protection is likely to be further diluted through Brexit’s unsettling of the UK’s constitutional arrangements within its current rights-averse political environment. This article adopts an institutional approach to assess the implications of Brexit for the UK’s protection of rights. It argues that even with some regulatory alignment between the EU and the UK, inadequate institutional arrangements risk undermining current levels of protection.