EUDIPLO - 8th Jean Monnet Doctoral Workshop

On the 21^st of April 2023, the EUDIPLO - 8th Jean Monnet Doctoral Workshop took place at University of Groningen (UG), The Netherlands.

This Jean Monnet Workshop is organized by the Department of European and Economic Law of the University of Groningen in the context of the EUDIPLO network on “The European Union in International Diplomatic Relations” (http://eudiplo.eu/), which was officially launched in November 2020. It is meant for PhD students and other early career scholars.

Over the years, the EU’s development as a diplomatic actor has been impressive (see also this overview). With over 140 Union Delegations around the world, the EU has established a network that resembles that of states. The functions of the Delegations largely coincide with those of state embassies. At the same time, the Union has become active in other international organizations, not just as a coordinator of Member States positions, but also in its own rights.

While many studies have focused on this new role of the EU as a diplomatic actor, there has hardly been any exchange between different academic disciplines. This workshop aims to do exactly that as its aims to bring together early career researchers on EU diplomacy with different backgrounds, including European law, international law, international relations, political science, and EU studies.

The introduction to the workshop was given by EUDIPLO coordinator, Prof. Ramses A. Wessel (Professor of European Law, UG), followed by a keynote speech on The Law and Politics of Diplomacy delivered by Prof. Peggy McGuinness (Professor of Law and Co-Director of the Center for International and Comparative Law, St. John's University, School of Law, New York.

There were four panels addressing the diverse challenges and opportunities of the EU’s diplomatic engagements: (1) internal challenges and opportunities, (2) conflicts and culture, (3) the international diplomatic system, and (4) EU Diplomacy and other regions.

I am thankful for being able to present my paper on the role of in-betweenness on the transformations of the Turkish and Indonesian foreign policies, with particular focus on the bilateral relations between the EU and Turkey, and between Japan and Indonesia since the 2000s. Prof. Jan van der Harst (Professor of European Integration, RUG), and Prof. Ramses A. Wessel (Professor of European Law, UG; EUDIPLO) provided very helpful comments on the research questions and operationalization of the concepts (notably in-betweenness).

Potential publication based on the workshop is under discussion. Meanwhile, many thanks to the organizers and participants again. I truly look forward to participating in conferences like this in the coming future.