Why so little attention on comparative regionalism? My take-away from EUSA 2019
Submitted by Maastricht University on Sun, 07/07/2019 - 11:25
by Anke Schwarzkopf – PhD Research Fellow at ARENA Centre for European Studies, University of Oslo
This year, the European Union Studies Association (EUSA) had its biennial conference in Denver, in the colorful state of Colorado. Around 400 scholar from around the globe had announced their attendance. This was my first large size conference as a scholar and I presented my current draft paper on the EU’s role in the multilateral negotiations towards an Arms Trade Treaty.
The conference program promised a wide range of panels, where topics were debated that ranged from all areas of EU internal and external politics, issues of EU development and integration, including theoretical approaches. The most popular issues could clearly be identified by studying the program, among those, the relations between the EU and the U.S., BREXIT and the future of the EU, and the move to right-wing populism in many EU Member States. I was not very surprise to find only few contributions on the EU as an actor in international organizations, or possibly within the UN system. Having attended several smaller European conferences and meeting with other scholars has already showed me that my field was not among the most common and popular ones in European Studies. The few papers that were directly in my research fields were unfortunately presented during the same time as my presentation took place.
Interestingly, however, I realized that another aspect that I have been thinking about in my research was even less represented at the EUSA conference. This is the question of the role of other regional organizations in international relations, and how the EU in comparison to other regional organizations was able to participate in international relations. The idea is that state-centricity is slowly replaced by a system of regional organization, where states express their opinion in a group of regional peers and possibly facilitate negotiations and interactions.
So I wondered whether the little interest in comparative regional studies was due to the apparent standstill of regional organizations, the little importance of regional organization in international relations, or the lack of interest from academics to engage in the field? It could also be that there is little to research from a European scholar’s perspective as no new and innovative ideas exist out there that could be beneficial for the EU’s integration?
In conclusion, I was to some extent amazed that the paper presentations reflected little on how regional organizations are changing the rules and customs within international relations and international organizations. This also includes the question of how state interaction could change and possibly be replaced by regional alliances and regional organization. While I am still assuming that this is a very interesting question, it is also clear that there are many interesting questions out there for researcher to analyze. So maybe this gap was not due the lack of interest for regional comparisons or lack of events that could be researched, but rather that in recent years, European politics and international relations have experienced so much change and chaos so that it is impossible to cover everything. Additionally, when big issues such as Trump, Brexit, and internal EU conflicts (such as migration, etc.) are ongoing, less pressing and dominant issues are a lower priority on the research agenda.
The EUSA conference has left me from more questions than answers, but also with a whole lot new ideas and thoughts on my current research and future projects. I thank NORTIA very much for the support and the possibility to experience such an interesting conference!