Loose coordination or ideological contestation? transnational party activities of german political parties on the eu military operation EUNAVFOR Med

Abstract

This article examines cross-national coordination on foreign and security policy among political parties of the same family. Drawing on resource dependence theory, it presents a case study of German political parties and their transnational activities on the controversial EU military operation to combat human trafficking in the Mediterranean Sea, EU Naval Force Mediterranean. The article finds evidence for transnational information exchange and coordination among the opposition parties, radical left and the greens, but less so among the government party, social democrats. The degree of transnational party activities can be understood by not only the extent to which parties share a common view in the first place but also the different resource needs of the government and opposition parties.