Analysis of the role of the European Union as a foreign and security policy actor in the post-9/11 era: The Middle East Peace Process

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Tezin Türü: Doktora

Tezin Yürütüldüğü Kurum: Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi, İktisadi ve İdari Bilimler Fakültesi, Uluslararası İlişkiler Bölümü, Türkiye

Tezin Onay Tarihi: 2010

Öğrenci: TAYLAN ÖZGÜR KAYA

Danışman: SEVİLAY KAHRAMAN

Özet:

The purpose of the thesis is to analyze the role of the EU as a foreign and security policy actor in the post-9/11 international security environment. The thesis investigates the congruity between the role that the EU aspires to play as a foreign and security actor (role conception) and its actual foreign and security policy actions and decisions (role performance) in a specific case of the Middle East Peace Process (MEPP) in the post-9/11 era. The role conceptions of the EU are identified by analyzing the content of the general foreign policy speeches delivered by the principal EU foreign policy officials and the EU official documents concerning foreign and security policy of the EU. The congruity between EU’s self-defined role conceptions and its actual role performance is tested in the case-study of the MEPP. As a result of the analysis, it is concluded that although the EU encountered some constraints when performing some of its self-proclaimed roles, this moderately weakened its effectiveness and international credibility as a foreign and security policy actor in the post-9/11 era, all in all, as observed in the case of the MEPP, the decisions and actions carried out by the EU while enacting its self-identified roles outweighed its deficiencies in its role performance. Despite some inconsistency problems the EU has encountered while performing its self-identified roles, its overall balance sheet as a foreign and security policy actor in the post-9/11 era is fairly positive.