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Essay 44: navigating change. The role of Latin American and Caribbean regionalism in shaping social policy in an uncertain global order
(SpringerNature, 2026) Bianculli, Andrea C.; Ribeiro Hoffmann, Andrea
EU foreign policy in a fragmenting international order
(SpringerNature, 2025) Costa, Oriol; Soler i Lecha, Eduard; Vlaskamp, Martijn
This open access book delves into the responses of EU actors, such as member states, institutions, and political groups in the European Parliament, to the fragmentation of the liberal international order (LIO). The analytical framework adopted in this volume explores the diverse interpretations of this phenomenon and the various political initiatives associated with them. Among these interpretations is the concept of strategic autonomy, which has emerged as a key feature of debates surrounding the EU's adaptation to a fragmented LIO. The contributors examine these dynamics across different issue areas and dimensions of EU foreign policy, encompassing the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), external relations, and the externalization of internal policies. They use the term fragmentation to refer to a bundle of processes affecting the LIO that range from challenges to the universality of human rights to the crisis of global governance instruments, from the bifurcation of tech to protectionist tendencies in trade policies.
European Union-Latin American interregional relations: taking stock and looking ahead
(Springer, 2025) Bianculli, Andrea C.; Brossa, Laia; Jordana, Jacint
The European Union (EU) and Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) have a long and deep-rooted history of economic and political relations, which has shown fluctuations, due to a diverse combination of structural and agential variables. On the EU side, different mechanisms and strategies have been put in place, at different levels, ranging from bilateral dialogues to formal agreements and interregional summits. Moreover, relations revolve around three main agendas, including political dialogue, cooperation, and trade, and involve a wide array of state and nonstate, private and public actors. The literature on EU–LAC relations is vast and widely scattered across fields, but it often remains limited to examining specific dimensions, either a particular policy area, analytical level, or period. This chapter attempts to move forward by proposing a wider perspective on the interregional relations, based on an analytical policy approach. It introduces a novel database, which provides a mapping of the policy instruments that have been employed by the EU to activate such relations, including the agreements governing the relations between the EU and LAC, and the cooperation programs funded by the EU in LAC. Based on this, the chapter will provide an encompassing insight into how interregional relations have evolved, considering their variations across instruments, policy areas, territorial levels, and over time.
Looking for resource sovereignty in a fragmenting global order: the EU’s response to critical raw materials challenges
(SpringerNature, 2025) Vlaskamp, Martijn
This chapter examines the European Union's (EU) evolving concerns and strategies regarding critical raw materials (CRMs), which are essential for the renewable energy and digital transitions. The COVID-19 pandemic and geopolitical tensions with Russia and China have made the EU aware of the fragility of some of their supply chains. Initially seen mainly as an economic issue, the secure supply of CRMs is now perceived as a geopolitical concern crucial for strategic autonomy. This shift led to the 2024 Critical Raw Materials Act, which includes domestic and external measures such as bilateral agreements with resource exporters and strategic partnerships with politically like-minded countries. These policies were supported by almost all Member States, EU institutions, and groups in the European Parliament. Overall, this case illustrates a move of the EU from unequivocally advocating global free trade to a more protective approach to secure the raw materials vital for Europe's political and economic ambitions.
EU foreign policy and the fragmentation of the international order: a framework for analysis
(SpringerNature, 2025) Costa, Oriol; Soler i Lecha, Eduard; Vlaskamp, Martijn
The liberal international order (LIO) is fragmenting—there is pushback against liberal universalism, spheres of influence are back, and the shortening of value chains is explicitly planned for. By itself an integration-through-law project born within the logic of the LIO, the EU has recorded such changes in its foreign policy. This chapter sketches a research agenda over the ways in which the fragmentation of the LIO has impacted (the politics of) EU foreign policy. How have intra-EU debates registered this process? What are the strategies deployed by the EU in the face of the changing and fragmenting landscape of global governance? We propose interrogating this plurality of responses by identifying three broad approaches to EU foreign policy (nationalism, Atlanticism and Europeanism), and then differentiate between two different reactions to a fragmenting liberal international order, depending on whether one prefers to embrace fragmentation, or rather rejects to act according to its logic.
Taking stock on the role of the EU in a fragmenting international order
(SpringerNature, 2025) Costa, Oriol; Barbé, Esther
Based on the previous contributions to the volume, this chapter draws some conclusions. We find plenty of variation in the ways and the extent to which fragmentation is taking place in different policy areas. We suggest that international institutions designed to be universal might fragment differently from institutions that became aspirationally universal only with the end of the Cold War—although they are all exposed to the effects of great power competition. As regards the ways the EU engages with a fragmenting LIO, we claim that the contours of the EU response are starting to emerge. According to contributions to this volume, there is a broad acceptance of the logic of fragmentation, little exclusive nationalism, frequent and differently balanced combinations of Atlanticism and Europeanism, and probably a stronger response in those issue areas in which states have delegated more powers to the EU.
The EU’s response to the fragmented emergence of artificial intelligence
(SpringerNature, 2025) Dini, Giovanni
The accelerating development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its growing strategic relevance in the context of international fragmentation and emerging geopolitical rivalry has thrust digital politics to the forefront of the European Union’s (EU) sovereign turn. Lacking the computational resources to shape AI development directly, the EU is attempting to wield influence through its normative power by passing the AI Act. EU actors are prevalently hedging between Atlanticist, Europeanist and nationalist approaches, reflecting the fluidity of contemporary digital politics and the growing instability and multipolarity of the international system.
The European Union’s role in global health: embracing governance complexity?
(SpringerNature, 2025) Fernández, Óscar; Kissack, Robert
COVID-19 placed global health governance under unprecedented strain. The World Health Organization (WHO) became severely questioned and got caught in the crossfire of great-power competition, whereas other entities vaulted into the limelight. This chapter delves into the European Union’s (EU) consolidation as an actor within this increasingly complex governance domain, whose fragmentation long predates COVID-19. We analyse the degree to which relevant political-institutional developments in the EU’s burgeoning (global) health policy, as well as the broader evolution of the global health architecture, have elicited Europeanist, Atlanticist and nationalist responses within the EU and its Member States. We find that European actors tend to signal a rejection of fragmentation in global health governance, while accepting it in practice.
The European Union and the fragmentation of the international human rights regime: the case of violence against women
(SpringerNature, 2025) Badell Sánchez, Diego; Barbé, Esther
This book chapter scrutinizes divergent attitudes toward human rights universality, focusing on women’s rights, particularly in combating violence against women. It reveals cracks at both the international and pan-European levels. Moreover, the chapter illustrates that the European Union is not immune to such fractures. Tensions emerge, particularly in Central and Eastern Europe, regarding the Istanbul Convention, reflecting a broader debate on universalistic versus traditional values, as well as on the appropriate governance level to address violence against women.
Strategic autonomy in security and defence as an impracticability? How the European Union’s rhetoric meets reality
(SpringerNature, 2025) Michaels, Eva; Sus, Monika
This chapter investigates debates on European Strategic Autonomy (ESA), viewing ESA as the main response of the European Union and its members to the fragmentation of the Liberal International Order in security and defence. By tracing the evolution of EU and national approaches to three main strands of the debates (defence industry, crisis management, and relations with global powers), we argue that the lack of an EU-wide permissive consensus about the direction and applicability of ESA rendered this impracticable. A handful of EU actors believed this could be an effective answer but the majority of member states were less keen to breathe life into the idea: whereas lip service to a vague concept was acceptable, committing to its implementation was not.
Multi-level governance in quality assurance in Spain: the case of the National Agency for Quality Assessment and Accreditation (ANECA)
(Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València, 2019) García Juanatey, Ana; Jordana, Jacint; Sancho, David, 1964-
This paper aims to examine the case of quality assurance in Spain, disentangling the evolution of the National Agency for Quality Assessment and Accreditation (ANECA), that made its way towards consolidation in a context characterized by deep policy transformations and by multiple actors involved. The case of ANECA and the Spanish context is particularly interesting because of the previous existence of several regional agencies before ANECA was created. These multilevel dynamics in quality assurance evolved over the years towards significant levels of coordination, but were not exempt of multiple conflicts. This case may contribute to assessing a gap in the literature: clarifying the role of quality agencies in implementing contested policy changes originated at the European level, identifying at the same time the complexities of multi-level governance.
How do third parties react to commodity sanctions?
(Taylor & Francis (Routledge), 2023) Vlaskamp, Martijn
Many sanctions regimes include bans on trade in natural resources (e.g., the US oil embargo on Venezuela, Iran, or Russia or Western sanctions on timber from Myanmar). Sanctions on various commodities have an “extraterritorial effect” and force third parties in public and private sectors to adapt their business strategies and behavior to multiple compliance requirements. Moreover, sanctions also indirectly affect third parties though commodity market mechanisms (e.g., price fluctuations, disruptions in supplies, financial risks, and uncertainties). The chapter discusses how third actors react to commodity sanctions. First, it provides a brief overview of past and present commodity sanctions. Then, it illustrates how third states can support the sanctions, maintain a neutral position, or proactively try to sabotage them. Similarly, companies can decide to either follow or ignore these sanctions regimes. As the chapter shows, the behavior of the government and businesses in third countries are not always the same. Third actors, therefore, should not be seen as monolithic blocks in research on sanctions.
Individualization and collectivization in contexts of organized criminal violence: the case of Mexico’s War on organized crime
(Oxford University Press, 2023) Kalmanovitz, Pablo; Bradley, Miriam
Most lethal violence now occurs outside of war zones. In Latin America, countries like Brazil, Mexico, El Salvador, and Colombia have often had yearly homicide rates far exceeding those in Afghanistan or Syria. The use of military force or militarized police has become widespread in such contexts, although they do not meet the international humanitarian law (IHL) thresholds for non-international armed conflict (NIAC) and formally fall under a law enforcement paradigm, where international human rights law (IHRL) applies in full. Through a case of study of Mexico’s ‘war on organized crime’, Pablo Kalmanovitz and Miriam Bradley show how the qualification of a situation of organized violence as NIAC or as below the NIAC threshold has major implications for how individualization processes operate. Starting from an IHRL baseline, processes of collectivization are identified and analysed in reverse analogy with processes of individualization in armed conflicts. The authors find that, while collectivization takes place in contexts of organized criminal violence, there is no international legal framework to underpin it, and consequently not the same level of protection as there is in war. Their analysis sheds light on the structure of processes of individualization in contexts of armed conflict, as it shows how much of the individualization process in armed conflicts is not a move towards peacetime regulation of violence under IHRL.
Sociedad internacional híbrida: gobernanza, solidarismo y soberanismo
(Fundación Carolina, 2024) Barbé, Esther
State institutions in north Taiwan versus south Taiwan
(University of Michigan Press, 2024) Wu, Chun-Ying; Liu, Amy H.
While the previous chapter emphasized how state exclusion resulted in separation, in this chapter, we see how political representation yielded an outcome that is less extreme. During the authoritarian period, the Kuomintang (KMT) imposed a repressive Mandarin-only policy. Yet as the country democratized in the early 1990s, the homogeneity of South Taiwan pulled the KMT to make linguistic concessions to its own Hokkien-speaking locals (benshengren). But this is only half the story. In North Taiwan, where the population has always been more heterogeneous, demographic shifts over several decades pushed the KMT away from repressive monolingualism.
Functional inequality in Latin America: news from the twentieth century
(SpringerNature, 2017) Astorga Junquera, Pablo
This chapter presents a new consistent yearly estimate of gross income (between-group) inequality Ginis for Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Venezuela over the period 1900–2011, using a newly assembled wage dataset for three occupational categories. The approach used differentiates labour by skill level and allows for changing allocation of the labour force over time. Property income is calculated as a residual. Our regional Gini shows a changing secular process with a reclined “S” shape with an inflection point around 1940 and a peak in the 1990s. There are mixed country trends in the early and middle decades, but in most cases inequality was on the rise in the 1960s. There was also a tendency for narrowing wage inequality in the middle decades of the last century but whose impact was more than offset by a rising share of the top income group. Inequality in the twentieth century is a story of increased polarisation—particularly post-1970—amid significant social mobility.
Interregionalism, trade and standardization: the long road to the EU-MERCOSUR trade agreement and the uncertainties ahead
(Oxford University Press, 2023) Bianculli, Andrea C.
The European Union and the Common Market of the South reached a political accord for a free trade agreement in 2019. This chapter assesses the definitional and normative content of trade facilitation and intellectual property rights therein. Both policy areas are regulated in reference to international rules and standards as set by the World Trade Organization agreements. Yet, they equally evince the articulation of novel definitional and standardization materials. This is the case for transparency, participation, and the involvement of the business community in trade facilitation. In intellectual property, these relate to an explicit commitment to advancing economic and social welfare, and a clear public interest dimension, especially around patents and health. Ideational and institutional elements account for these noteworthy outcomes. Whereas the first refer to how ideas and discourse evolve in trade regulations and standards, the second variable underscores the relevance of history, thus emphasizing interregionalism as a process, where context and time are essential.
Agenda dynamics in Spain
(Oxford University Press, 2019) Chaqués Bonafont, Laura; Palau, Anna M.; Muñoz Márquez, Luz
The main goal of the Policy Agendas Project in Spain is to promote a comprehensive theoretical and empirical understanding of agenda dynamics across time, issues, and levels of governance. The project establishes a link between policy dynamics research and other areas of concern within political science, mainly media studies, political representation, and the quality of democracy in multilevel systems of governance. It also provides a new tool for the development of quantitative measurements of policy dynamics. Over the last few years comprehensive and far-reaching datasets about Spanish political and media agendas (following the methodology of the Comparative Agendas Project (CAP)) have been created, which are free and accessible to download from the webpage: www.q-dem.com.
Public administration and democracy: the complementarity principle
(Cambridge University Press, 2022) Bertelli, Anthony M.; Schwartz, Lindsey J.
This Element argues for a complementarity principle – governance values should complement political values – as a guide for designing the structures and procedures of public administration. It argues that the value-congruity inherent in the complementarity principle is indispensable to administrative responsibility. It identifies several core democratic values and critically assesses systems of collaborative governance, representative bureaucracy, and participatory policymaking in light of those values. It shows that the complementarity principle, applied to these different designs, facilitates administrative responsibility by making the structures themselves more consistent with democratic principles without compromising their aims. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.
Boko Haram in Nigeria: R2P and non‐state armed groups
(Springer, 2022) Açikyildiz, Çaglar
Focusing on the case of Nigeria with the aim to understand what has been missing in terms of the protection of the Nigerian population and the role the NSAGs play, this chapter asks to what extent and how the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) has been implemented in response to the Boko Haram insurgency in Nigeria? The chapter proceeds in three sections. First, it provides a brief background on the roots of the conflict and the scope of Boko Haram’s influence in the region. The subsequent section explores R2P’s implementation in the case of Nigeria through a pillar-by-pillar analysis. It first studies the national response with the aim to understand the extent and nature of the Nigerian State’s failure to protect its population with respect to Pillar One. This is followed by an overview of the international responses to the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Nigeria in relation to Pillar Two, and a discussion on Pillar Three including the possibility of employing forceful measures. The final section reflects on the lessons that can be drawn from the case of Nigeria for future implementations of R2P.

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