2012 Jean Monnet Graduate Student Workshop Report

SUCEES-SabanciUniversity

On June 1, 2012, a Jean Monnet Graduate Student Conference was organized within the auspices of SUCEES- Sabanci University Center of Excellence for European Studies. A total of 14 graduate students from institutionsin Turkey as well as the EU members participated and presented their papers on the EU integration. The papers were submitted via the website two months before the workshop and a selection committee chose the most qualifiedpapers for presentation. The papers were presented in a workshop style with a discussion period of the papers done by one of the European studies professors involved in SUCEES- Meltem Muftuler-Bac, Ahmet Evin, Isik Ozel, Emre Hatipoglu, Mustafa Halit Tagma and Brooke Luetgert. The workshop provided a unique opportunity for graduate students working onvarious aspects of European integration to present their work to established professors and also to build a network for themselves.

The total number of participants, with paper presenters, discussants and attendees were 30.

This event also addressed one of the key objectives of the SUCEES- which is to involve new scholars and PhD students from Anatolian universities into the orbit of European Studies network.

The following report contains the paper abstracts for the participants as well as the workshop program.

Jean Monnet Graduate Student Workshop

SabanciUniversity Centre of Excellence in European Studies -SUCEES

June 1st 2012

FASS 2034

8:45: Welcome Address, Meltem Muftuler-Bac

Session 1: 9:00- 10:30 am: International Organizations, the EU and the International System

Chair: Emre Hatipoglu

Discussant: Brooke Luetgert

  • GolamRobbani , University of Antwerp, “Regional Economic Intergovernmental Organizations Promote Peace”
  • Anne-Claire Marangoni, College of Europe, INCOOP Initial Training Network, “‘Insider-outsider’, aiming towards the coherence of the EU’s external action? The coordination of the EEAS and the Commission”
  • Damla Cihangir, SabanciUniversity, “Re-emergence of ‘differentiated integration’ discussions after the economic crisis: Is this the end of the EU?”
  • Ilke Toygur, Universidad Autonoma Madrid, “Decision Making in the European Union and the Role of Nationality: The Case of Turkey in the EP”

Coffee Break: 10:30-11:00 am

Session 2: 11:00 am-12:30 pm The European Union, Transatlantic Relations and the Enlargement Process

Chair: Isik Ozel

Discussant: Meltem Muftuler-Bac

  • Anne-Claire Marangoniand Alexandra Bettencourt, College of Europe, “Facing uprisings: Libya, a test case for transatlantic partners”
  • Michal Onderco, VrijeUniversityAmsterdam, “EU MemberStates and Iranian Nuclear Program 2002-2009”
  • Ahmethan Vural, IstanbulBilgiUniversity and EuropeanUniversity Viadrina, “Eurosceptic Party Politics in Turkey and Its' Impact to the External Democratization Process: The Case of Justice and Development Party's Changing Policies Towards EU Membership Process”

Lunch Break 12:30-13:30 pm

Session 3: 13:30-15:00 pm: Conditionality, institutions and the civil society.

Chair: Brooke Luetgert

Discussant: Isik Ozel

  • Fulya Gokcen, Bilkent University, “Logic of Consequentalism and EU Reform Process: Civil-Military Relations in JDP Era”
  • Sinem Arslan, YeditepeUniversity, “European Union Conditionalityvis a vis the Kurdish Question in Turkey”
  • Tugba Gurcel, Bilkent University, Religious Courses in Turkish Formal Education: Explaining Domestic Change with Europeanization Theory
  • Sezin Dereci, Bremen International Graduate School, “In what ways and to what extent the process of Turkey’s accession to the EU has empowered non-state actors to act as ‘carriers’ of Europeanisation ?”

Coffee Break: 15:00-15:30 pm

Session 4: 15:30 pm-17:00 pm,The European Union and Its Energy Needs

Chair: Ahmet Evin

Discussant: Emre Hatipoglu

  • Cagri Yildirim, SabanciUniversity, The European Union Energy Policy: Divergence or Convergence?
  • Seymur Huseyinli, IzmirDokuzEylulUniversity,Energy Policy of the European Union and Importance of the Energy Resources of Azerbaijan: Neo-functionalist and Liberal Intergovernmentalist Approach
  • Duygugul Can, SabanciUniversity, "The Role of Turkey in European Energy Policy"

17:00-17: 30 Concluding session

PARTICIPANTS LIST

Graduate Students

Sinem Arslan, YeditepeUniversity

Duygugul Can, SabanciUniversity

Damla Cihangir, SabanciUniversity

Sezin Dereci, BremenInternationalGraduateSchool

Dogu Durgun, SabanciUniversity

AyseEzgiGurcanSabanciUniversity

Fulya Gokcen Hisarlioglu, Bilkent University

Tugba Gurcel, Bilkent University

Seymur Huseyinli, IzmirDokuzEylulUniversity

Anne-Claire Marangoni, College of Europe

Michal Onderco, VrijeUniversityAmsterdam

GolamRobbani , University of Antwerp

Ilke Toygur, Universidad Autonoma Madrid

Ahmethan Vural, IstanbulBilgiUniversity and EuropeanUniversity Viadrina

Ezgi Uzun, SabanciUniversity

Cagri Yildirim, SabanciUniversity

PAPER ABSTRACTS

  • Robbani Golam, University of Antwerp

In an attempt to assess the impact of intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) on militarized interstate disputes during 1885-2000, Pevehouse and Russett claim that democratic IGOs promote peace. Further analyses using their data and models, however, suggest that their conclusion is contingent on irrelevant dyads, valid only in the post-1950 period, and driven by regionally integrated dyads. Analyses replacing their democratic IGOs with regional economic IGOs indicate that the peace dividend they observe in their study is mainly caused by regional economic integrations flourished during the post-War period. This study finds consistent support for the Kantian peace proposition, and hints that the regional economic IGOs may bring peace in a fast moving globalized world.

  • Anne-Marie Maragoni, INCOOP Initial Training Network, “‘Insider-outsider’, aiming towards the coherence of the EU’s external action? The coordination of the EEAS and the Commission”

After one year of existence, the European External Action Service is praised for its added value to address the coherence challenge of EU diplomacy. Yet, although a major innovation, the new institutional set-up has reintroduced the perception of an “outsider-insider” divide between the EEAS and the Commission, which further sharpens the coordination issue. Past working relationships have been disrupted while new coordination needs and challenges have arisen. If the strength of EU diplomacy lies in the many dimensions of its action, inter-institutional divisions could jeopardise the necessary integration of these different dimensions into a coherent diplomacy. This paper will assess how and to what extent the different dimensions of EU diplomacy are articulated between the Commission and the EEAS. It argues that, despite the renewed commitment to inter-institutional coordination, the coherence of EU diplomacy remains a challenge.

  • Alexandra Betten-Court, College of Europe, “Facing uprisings: Libya, a test case for transatlantic partners”

Recent international developments have proved that foreign policy structures face uprisings on an unprecedented scale, requiring a multidimensional action. Whether crises are on the brink of exploding or years in the making, challenges faced by the US and the EU as international actors are the same. Foreign policy structures, diplomatic services, are key instruments in providing for a decisive, timely and cross-sectoral response. These services both depend on the impetus given by political leaders and determine outsiders’ perceptions of the decisiveness of a leader to address a crisis. The US - traditionally an international security provider - and the EU - taking over time steps to reinforce its international reach – are challenged in their role. Their concrete reaction, individually and as partners, defines their credibility and effectiveness. To what extent do the US and the EU manage to provide a consistent and concerted external action through their foreign policy structures? Since February 2011, the international community is very much concerned by the situation in Libya. The paper will build on the Libyan revolution as a case study. A rapidly deteriorating situation on the ground called for a manifold action. Yet, the involvement of some international actors remains cautious: national politics, the distance and previous controversial military engagement may weigh off geopolitical interests. Does Libya constitute the scene of a renewed transatlantic partnership in crisis management or an opportunity for individual actors to pursue other objectives?

  • Mert Kartal, University of Wisconsin, “When do international organizations (IOs) influence democratic governance?”

Focusing on the European Union (EU) and its Central and Eastern European (CEE) members, the paper questions the levels of IO effectiveness on states' democratic practices before and after accession. It is argued that both the “type” and “level” of IO leverage affect state behavior, and that such IO impact is conditional on the efforts of domestic actors. The study initially provides systematic evidence indicating that several CEE countries have experienced ‘democratic backsliding’ after EU accession. Focusing on “corruption” as a commonly used indicator of democratic governance, it highlights that there have been two types of variation in CEE countries’ ‘anti-corruption’ behavior: First is what is referred to as “cross-national variation” (i.e. variation across countries’ performance to fight corruption) while the second variation is entitled “cross-temporal variation” (i.e. variation within a country's ‘anti-corruption’ performance over time). Combining both structure-based and actor-based explanations for IO impact on state behavior, the paper argues that the variations stem from both the structural conditions the EU provides domestic political actors with, and the preferences of domestic actors. This finding is supported by two qualitative case studies tracing the anti-corruption practices of Estonia and Romania between the early 1990s until 2011.

  • Ilke Toygur, Universitat Autonoma Madrid

Decision making in the European Union, and the mechanism behind, has been an interesting topic for many political scientists, so is the process of enlargement. This paper provides a short theoretical and historical background on the topic and aims to define the level of importance nationality has in decision-making mechanism of a Member of the European Parliament, with a specific case study about the voting in EP about Turkey. Our data set, which is derived from the “EU Vote Watch” data, includes 92 vote rolls between 2004 and 2011 and more than 65000 decisions made by MEPs. The work is commenting on the role nationality and ideology play in these decisions, while also introducing the effect of public opinion.

  • Chiara Maritato and Federica Zardo, University of Torino

Albeit the enthusiasm for the EU accession perspectives is fading, the so-called Europeanisation process is still ongoing in Turkey: domestic reforms are being implemented and the word “harmonisation” is being alternately waved both by liberal coalitions and conservative ones.The geographic position of the Country makes it a strategic partner for the EU while having the potential to create substantial negative externalities for Brussels, such as illegal migration and cross-border crimes. Hence, although reforms related to people flow are pivotal challenges for accession, it’s worth noticing that progresses are contradictory and potentially misleading.

This paper aims at highlighting that Turkish migration policy seems to be the litmus paper of the “spurious” Europeanization process of the Country and its relationships with the EU as a whole.The uneven path followed until now to comply with the candidate status as for migration related issues - the right of asylum, citizenship and border control – mirrors a political agenda which is at the same time affected by the EU conditionality, domestic political inputs and international pressure other then European. On the one hand reforms related to border control and the fight against irregular migration are being implemented according to the “acquis communautaire” and in cooperation with Brussels, on the other the negotiations tackling the right of asylum and citizenship are still frozen. Nevertheless they are being pursued within international fora such as the UN or the Council of Europe, thus revealing an ongoing reform process only partially answering to the European offer.

  • Sezin Dereci, Bremen International Graduate School, “In what ways and to what extent the process of Turkey’s accession to the EU has empowered non-state actors to act as ‘carriers’ of Europeanisation ?”

Europeanization literature has been mostly produced for the EU member states. This literature recently started to consider in what ways and under which circumstances enlargement and the accession process change the identity, the interests, and the behavior of governmental and societal actors. The analysis of Turkish accession to the EU provides the opportunity to test the quality of EU approaches to non-state actors outside EU’s borders. Various participatory mechanisms, capacity building initiatives funded by the EU, general frameworks dictated by the EU to overcome existing policy misfits, and exchanges at the transnational level bring a potential empowerment of non-state actors that will increase their willingness and capacities to contribute to the policy adoption process of an accession state. This research examines the consequences the EU accession process has on interest groups in Turkey, as the accession country is under investigation here. There are three questions that are given particular attention: First, to what extent are they empowered to become ‘carriers’ of Europeanisation? Second, following from the previous question, do interest groups mobilize as the catalysts for the policy adoption in the accession process or are they detached? Third, what are the conditions facilitate or constrain their involvement?The results obtained so far indicate that the link between material and political opportunities that the EU might offer and domestic adaptation or mobilization of Turkish non-state actors is not reflexive. Their mode of Europeanisation resonates from both external opportunities (i.e. the influence of the EU) and internal constraints inherent to the respective organizations and their specific policy realms. The organizations that I will focus on are organized in the sense of their political interests. The empirical data is drawn from expert interviews conducted with the key representatives from the organizations. This paper will have the focus on the NGO sector, trade unions and business associations of the civil society realm.

  • Ahmethan Vural, BilgiUniversity and EuropeanUniversity Viadrina

The democratization process directed by regional and international organizations collobration with domestic forces face many different contradictions and problems in the transition countries. One of the most important is domestic oppossition pressures under the name of authoritarianism, nationalism or populism. Intense changes both in social and political domestic spheres create an intense oppossitions and some kind of historical contradictions and fears about external-internal interactions also feed them. In this sense, the term of ‘ Euroscepticism’ -especially in the political parties- become crucial to determine success or failure of the external democracy promotion by the EU in Turkey. It is crucial because without a Euro-supportive public opinion and europhile governments, European Union’s democracy promotion which based on socialization, persuasion and conditionality efforts can not get an overall success. In this sense, the place and opinions of Turkish political parties about these efforts become important to determine success or failure of democratization efforts due to their key roles to determine the size and ratio of Euroscepticsm in public opinion and governments.

  • FulyaGokcen-BilkentUniversity, “Logic of Consequentalism and EU Reform Process: Civil-Military Relations in JDP Era”

This study is aimed at offering a systematic and comprehensive analysis of the reform enthusiasm of political elites during the Justice and Development Party (JDP) governments in the adaptation to the European Union (EU) in response to the conditionalities imposed by EU. By adapting a new institutionalism perspective, it aims to understand the importance of both agency (political elites- JDP government) and structure (domestic institutional settings- civil-military relations-) in the process of Europeanization. By considering the premises of new institutionalism theories, it suggests that the EU conditionality emerges as an important anchor for domestic change in the normalization of civil-military relations in Turkey. EU membership process constitutes a critical juncture for institutional change by altering the domestic political environment at the state level. This re-alignment in domestic politics through EU pressures offers new opportunity structures for political actors. The ongoing legal-institutional reforms which re-draw the boundaries of civil-military interactions dramatically shift the domestic balance of powers in favor of civil bureaucracy and political elites. Therefore, JDP government should be considered as a rational actor which strategically utilize the new opportunity structures to enhance its political power and area of maneuver.

  • Sinem Arslan, YeditepeUniversity, “EUROPEAN UNION CONDITIONALITY VIS A VIS THE KURDISH QUESTION IN TURKEY”

Democratic conditionality is the main strategy of the European Union during the enlargement process to induce candidate states to comply with its democratic norms by the use of membership incentive. Conditionality mechanism by prioritizing human rights, rule of law and democracy contributed to the adoptation of many legal reforms in many areas including the rights of the Kurds in Turkey. But what extend this reform process and the Union’s reinforcement by reward mechanism was successful? This essay aims to answer this question by a series of expert interviews conducted both in Diyarbakır and in İstanbul with the deputies and the leaders of the pro Kurdish party and authors, journalists, scholars and representatives of NGO’s who have been working about the Kurdish Question in Turkey.

  • Cagri Yildirim, SabanciUniversity, The European Union Energy Policy: Divergence or Convergence?

This paper mainly argues that the member states of the EU have divergent policies in the area of foreign policy dimension of energy security while they have convergent policies in the area of environment. In order to explain this hypothesis, firstly, the concept of energy security will be explained. Then, the energy security of the EU will be analyzed to understand why the EU needs an energy policy. In this direction, I grounded my analysis on the theoretical assumptions of Liberal Intergovernmentalism. By using these assumptions, I created two sub- hypothesizes to support my main argument. Then, I tested my sub-hypothesizes through collecting all the EU legislative acts in the area of “coal”.

  • Huseyin Seymur, DokuzEylulUniversity

As a second biggest energy consumer of the world European Union aims to get cheaper, more qualified and uninterrupted energy service to its consumers. Targets of the Energy policy of the European Union are to strengthen competition capacity, provide secure energy supple, protect environment, reduce share of coal, increase share of natural gas in total energy consumption, realization secure nuclear energy and encourage renewable energy.To provide necessary energy from outside particularly from Russia is not safe enough as it proved itself several times. As stability in the Middle East region is very fragile, the Caspian region gains priority for providing alternative energy resources and transportation routes. This article aims to analyze importance of energy resources of Azerbaijan for security of energy supply to the European Union.