Walking on two legs: culture and calculus in European Union development cooperation

In this essay, we examine member state approaches to European development cooperation through the lens of collective action. We observe that successful collective action requires a combination of both culture and calculus. We suggest that the European debate sometimes suffers from an excess of one and a shortfall in the other – and vice‐versa. We note that different perspectives can be explained by different geopolitical realities. We conclude that it is better to walk on two legs than hop along on one – and that judicious application of collective action theory can help this happen.