Due November 15, 2026
Contestations to EU Foreign Policy: Institutions, Crises, and Global Entanglements
The Interdisciplinary Review of ValEUs https://valeus.pitt.edu/index.php/valeus invites contributions to a special issue on contestations to EU foreign policy.
The occasion for this call is institutional: proposed reforms to the European External Action Service, and to the role of the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, have reopened long-standing questions about the EU’s capacity to speak with one voice in world affairs. The High Representative’s office was created to resolve tensions among member states and craft a common position on foreign affairs. The current reform proposals have drawn concern that they will deepen, rather than resolve, the EU’s difficulty in reaching such a position. Mechanisms that have eased friction elsewhere in European policy, such as a multi-speed Europe, do not obviously transfer to this field. We welcome contributions that explore how contestations to EU foreign policy originate within the EU’s own institutions.
The occasion, however, is only the starting point. The list of foreign policy challenges facing the EU extends further: the war in Ukraine, the war in Gaza, the destabilization of NATO and the transformation of the transatlantic relationship, shifts in the international monetary system, the governance of artificial intelligence, and relations with China, among others. These challenges, and the difficulty of resolving them, are themselves sites of contestation over what EU foreign policy is and whom it serves. We also welcome work that counters Eurocentric approaches to these questions, underscores the global entanglement of all EU policy, and considers European actions in the world from non-European perspectives. Further, we welcome considerations of de-europanization movements and the ends of the international liberal order.
We invite contributions from international relations, political theory, history, law, anthropology, and cultural and postcolonial studies, among other fields.
Submission Guidelines
Abstracts (250–300 words) due: Nov 15.
Notification of acceptance: Nov 30
Submit to: IRValEUs@pitt.edu