Palgrave, 258 S.
Rezension von Tobias Schumacher
Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies
European University Institute
Florence
With his study, Holland aimed at providing an “empirical account of the historical development of the EU’s Third World policy” that “offers more than a repetitive, descriptive and statistical recital of information easily found elsewhere” (p. 16). As he put the study’s “primary focus on the EU policy-making process and the linkage between internal EU integration and external relations” the book is guided by the assumption that “there is a simple ‘spillover’ from the level of political and economic integration within the EU into the area of development policy” (p. 11). Hence, according to the author, the book should be considered as a “thematic analysis and overview that locates development policy in the wider integration debate” (p. 12). With this in view, the study is divided into nine chapters and one thematic introduction that gives an overview of each chapter and also focuses on the problem of defining the developing world. Moreover, the introductory chapter debates the normative question of why the EU should have (and needs to have) a development policy.
To come to the most important point first, this book is a well-researched, highly informative and detailed study that manages throughout to link the internal dynamics and developments of EU policy making with actual policy operation and implementation. Using reader-friendly language and numerous tables and figures to substantiate the various arguments put forward, the book is to be commended for two reasons. First, the author is able to explain the shortcomings of the EU’s development policy and thus to show why it must be reformed. Not only has the end of the Cold War contributed to an increasing shift in EU development aid in favor of the Central and Eastern European transition countries, but also the end of the bipolar system-antagonism and the emerging process of globalization have brought to the fore the fact that the EU’s development policy was, as Holland aptly points out, marked by fragmentation and by an incremental aid-and-trade practice until the end of the 1990s. As the EU had never developed clear-cut development criteria and, hence, never thoroughly specified the geographic scope of its development actions, its “policy patchwork” as regards the Third World over the years met neither the needs nor the expectations of its potential recipients.
The book’s second strength lies in the fact that the author is able to explain the EU’s approach to developing countries in the context of the sophisticated trinity of policy-coordination, coherence and complementarity which accompanies almost any EU policy action. In other words, the study is embedded in a deep discussion of the impact of the processes of institutional change on EU development policy, and also of the latter’s legal base, its interplay with other EU policies and, most of all, its unique intergovernmental character.
Despite this very positive assessment, the book is not without weaknesses; although they hardly relate to the empirical content, they need to be pointed out. The first shortcoming relates to methodology and the underlying framework of analysis. The text, according to the author, is conceived as an empirical study that focuses on “the strengths and weaknesses of EU policy (in content and scope)” (p. 16). However, the author does not specify which methodological tools he applies to conduct this evaluation. The reference that the study is guided by a “region-to-region approach” (p. 23) seems to be insufficient in that respect. Whereas this might only concern the more “technically-minded” political scientist, a more general and more important problem concerns the book’s objective of going beyond pure analytical description. As Holland states that his analysis of EU development policy will be embedded in the wider integration debate and that the “motivations and rationale behind European policies – as well as the chosen policy mechanisms – requires a theoretical framework” (p. 234), the more critical reader may be puzzled by the fact that the overwhelming majority of the chapters surprisingly lack such a theory-inspired analysis. In principle, the author’s decision to refrain from outlining his theoretical approach in an introductory theoretical chapter and to debate EU development policy in light of the various strands of integration theory only in the form of a concluding chapter at the end of his book can be justified. Such an approach, however, raises the question of where the analytical innovation of the book lies – in particular when it is compared with those studies that Holland seems to consider descriptive and statistical. In addition, while it is understandable that the author applies integration theory to his empirical findings, it does not really become clear why he limits the chapter only to this particular theoretical school. From a heuristic point of view, the inclusion of cooperation theories might have proven fruitful. Not only could such an inclusion have served as the basis for a critical comparison of the two schools’ explanatory power with regard to the EU’s development policy, but it could have also paved the way for future, more theory-informed research on the EU’s external relations.
The second shortcoming of this book relates to its underlying level of analysis, that is, its geographic scope and content. Instead of analyzing the EU’s relations with the Third World in general, as the title of the book suggests, the study has a very strong focus on economic, trade and aid matters. Moreover, it excludes numerous states that could be classified as developing countries. Although it is explicitly acknowledged at the outset of the study that most countries in Asia and North Africa are an essential part of the EU’s development policy, the text turns out to have as its main focus the analysis of EU relations with the so-called ACP (Africa, Caribbean and Pacific) states. This is regrettable as the author himself raises the expectation that this text “reflects the reality and actual practice of the EU’s development relations” (p. 7).
Nonetheless, from a purely empirical perspective and despite these shortcomings The EU and the Third World is an invaluable read, most of all for scholars working specifically on the EU’s approach towards the Lomé and Cotonou countries. As it is a well-written study that successfully links the impact of the EU’s internal dynamics with an important part of its external relations, Holland’s book also represents a valuable source of information for a wider public that is more generally interested in the EU’s development and its role as an actor in the international system.
Tobias Schumacher
Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies
European University Institute
Florence
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