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Putting security in its place: EU security politics, the European neighbourhood policy and the case for practical reflexivity

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Abstract

This article advances the discussion on reflexivity among students of the EU security politics, in particular those scholars who foreground the critical dimension of their work. It argues that reflexivity is a practical concern in, and an integral part of, the research process. Efforts to locate security within a given political ordering need to be combined with an effort from scholars to examine their own knowledge-producing practices. Such an undertaking should not be considered as indulgence, narcissism or as an ex-ante or ex post, meta-theoretical commitment, but should take place in the research process itself, and particularly in the presentation of findings, as a fruitful contribution to research rather than as a safeguard or defence of one’s critical credentials. The article furthers this argument by mapping practical reflexivity onto research on the EU security politics and the European neighbourhood policy.

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Notes

  1. Krenzler’s term was so influential that DG I was in the early 1990s referred to as ‘House Krenzler’ among Commission officials (Abélès et al. 1993: 10).

  2. In 2000, the unit became the GOPA under Romano Prodi’s presidency. Since 2004 and the arrival in office of José Manuel Barroso, it has gone under the name of Bureau of European Policy Advisors (BEPA). Here again, the research I conducted was influenced by the initial contacts I had benefitted from as a Bruges student with GOPA officials.

  3. The ISS is a policy research body, affiliated until 2002 to the Western European Union organisation, which subsequently became an EU agency.

  4. For the former, see, for example, Batt (2003) for the Centre for European Reform; Wallace (2003) for the Notre Europe foundation. For the latter see, for example, Aliboni (2005) or the special issue of The International Spectator guest-edited by Balfour and Rotta (2005).

  5. Fieldnotes, Paris, September 2006.

  6. Interview, DG Relex, European Commission, October 2007 (my translation).

  7. Interview, DG Relex, November 2006.

  8. Interview, DG Relex, November 2006 The interviewee was previously employed within DG JHA/JLS.

  9. Interview, DG Relex, April 2005 (my translation).

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  1. Department of Political Science, University of Amsterdam, Oudezijds Achterburgwal 237, Amsterdam, 1012 DL, The Netherlands

    Julien Jeandesboz

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Correspondence to Julien Jeandesboz.

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This article will be included in the JIRD’s forthcoming special issue on “Securitization Theory and European Security”.

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Jeandesboz, J. Putting security in its place: EU security politics, the European neighbourhood policy and the case for practical reflexivity. J Int Relat Dev 21, 22–45 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1057/jird.2015.11

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