Being Clear Enough to Be Wrong: Europeanization Refuted and Defended

Abstract

The purpose of this chapter is to demonstrate that it is possible to formulate, empirically test and refute explanations that conceptualize foreign policy change as the outcome of Europeanization, 1 thus establishing that the latter can indeed be useful for the study of foreign policy when it is embedded in carefully designed research projects. The first section of the chapter establishes that change in Greek policy towards Turkey during the second half of the 1990s constitutes a potential case of Europeanization, formulates three alternative explanations of change in Greek policy and specifies their observable implications for three dimensions of the policymaking process: the definition of the policy problem, the alternative courses of action considered and the manner in which the latter were assessed. The second section briefly presents the evidence drawn from process tracing the observable implications of the three alternative explanations for the three dimensions of the pol-icymaking process mentioned above, which refutes both explanations that attribute causal significance to the European Union (EU). The concluding section discusses the implications for the design of empirical research on the Europeanization of EU member states' foreign policies.