Rethinking EU Foreign Policy through a Decentring Approach: When the EU deals with the religious and the secular

An event organised by the Institute for the Study of European Law (ISEL), City Law School

Chair: Dr Adrienne Yong, Senior Lecturer in Law, The City Law School, City, University of London

Discussant: Dr Sara Silvestri, Senior Lecturer in International Politics School of Policy & Global Affairs, City, University of London

Speaker

Sarah Wolff is Professor in European Politics and International Relations at Queen Mary University of London, Director of the Centre for European Research and Strategic Lead of Queen Mary in Paris.

Her talk will be based on her book published with Michigan University Press Secular Power Europe and Islam (2021).

She currently serves as a member of the UACES committee, the ECPR Standing Group on the European Union, co-convenor of the ECPR Mediterranean Politics and Society Research Network. She is Visiting Professor at the College of Europe.

Her current research focuses on EU governance and the concept of civic duty in times of permanent emergency, through co-Duties a Norwegian Research Council funded project and on EU-UK and Franco-British relations following a Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence grant for which she was PI 2019-2022 NEXTEUK.

Abstract

Normative Power Europe has been contested abroad for a long time for being too Eurocentric, projecting at times a one-size fits all model abroad which ignores local circumstances. Domestically, it is contested by European populist movements from a value perspective.

At the same time with Russia's war on Ukraine and the EU's response centred around Strategic Autonomy and European Sovereignty, one could argue for a return of traditional geopolitics. This is not without pitfalls, and instead the decentring turn argues for the need to acknowledge eurocentrism by provincialising Europe, engaging more in-depth with other foreign policy actors, as well as reconstructing praxis.

Through the case study of EU religious engagement, and based on her book Secular Power Europe and Islam: Identity and Foreign Policy, this talk will illustrate how the EU has engaged with religious actors, and how this decentring move is particularly difficult to achieve due to uncertainties about EU's secular identity and values.