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Too Effective for Europe? The UK, Norm Advocacy and the Case of EU International Cooperation
Author(s) -
Steingass Sebastian
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
jcms: journal of common market studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.54
H-Index - 90
eISSN - 1468-5965
pISSN - 0021-9886
DOI - 10.1111/jcms.12927
Subject(s) - referendum , brexit , norm (philosophy) , political science , european union , context (archaeology) , public administration , corporate governance , transnational governance , state (computer science) , political economy , politics , sociology , international trade , business , economics , law , management , paleontology , algorithm , computer science , biology
Despite being an 'awkward partner' in the EU, Britain has significantly shaped international cooperation in it. The size of Britain's development sector and its accumulated skills have given it a strong voice in the EU, particularly in terms of aid and development cooperation. In the years before the Brexit referendum of 2016, EU development cooperation shifted towards meeting the priorities of subsequent UK governments and against competing priorities. This article traces British participation in EU norm advocacy in development cooperation. The analysis shows how politico‐administrative actors have engaged beyond inter‐state power brokering and across levels of governance to shape EU policy, especially in transnational societal networks and capacity‐building in EU institutions. The article places this case into the wider context of EU norm advocacy to show how actors seek to push EU policy towards their politico‐administrative interests and identities, and it makes suggestions about what this implies for EU–UK relations.