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DELCOURT Barbara
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Projetcs
After the Lisbon Treaty, EU Delegations are becoming key players in EU foreign policy-making. In contrast to the past, the status of EU Delegations has been upgraded and they were included into the EU foreign policy framework. Yet EU Delegations have so far not attracted much attention from academic researchers. My research project, therefore, examines the making of EU foreign policy in non-EU third countries through EU Delegations, thereby filling the gap in the current scholarship. Building on my previous research and drawing on new data to be collected through extensive series of interviews in Brussels and selected EU Delegations, the research project focuses on: firstly, influence of EU Delegations vis-à-vis “big powers”, such as the United States and China; and, secondly, on several other cases creating shadow comparisons with other EU Delegations around the world (e.g. Turkey, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Congo, to the UN). All cases will be related to one another through placing them on a continuum, but will also be individually evaluated. At the heart of the research is the goal of assessing how well EU Delegations have so far performed, the extent and cause of the difference between external perceptions and reality, and to what extent the successes and failures of EU Delegations are due to their design or implementation. Moreover, the project feeds into broader theoretical debates concerning the course and motors of European integration and the changing role of international diplomacy. Therefore, the research informs both foreign policy and European Studies. Although the research will primarily lead to reconsideration of academic approaches to EU foreign policy-making, it also aims to have a policy impact by providing guidance for improvement in management of EU Delegations for practitioners based in Brussels and EU Member State capitals, thereby demonstrating the benefits and impact of the research beyond traditional academic circles. Researcher: Tereza Novotna.
Analysis of the emergence of international norms
Researches lead on some international norms, such as the responsibility to protect, have enabled to deepen the knowledge of sociological conditions allowing the emergence and consolidation of norms at the international level and evaluate more precisely potentialities and limits inherent in ideas or values spreading within the international society.In this outlook, Barbara DELCOURT's previous researches related to the economy of relations between law and politics have been proved to be very useful and made possible the establishment of links between researches led in the international law and sociology field and confirmed her first intuitions concerning the added value of a multidisciplinary approach in the analysis of international politic.
Multiple perspectives on UNIFIL
This multidisciplinary and multinational project gathers a large team of researchers and practitioners and it aims at addressing the complexities of peacekeeping with the upgraded post-2006 UNIFIL as a case study. The specific topic researched by E. Aoun relates to the direct and indirect involvement of the EU and its Member States in the missions spelled by Security Council Resolution 1701 and other issues directly touching to UNIFIL's mandate (border control, relations with the local population, stances regarding Lebanese internal politics and regional issues affecting Lebanon). Using qualitative methods, this research relies on a field enquiry and a series of interviews. It has given way to presentations in the framework of two seminars (Rome, June 2008; Madrid, June 2009) and should result in a chapter in an edited book. Lead researcher: Elena Aoun.
EurobroadMap. Visions of Europe in the World
Participation to the 7th framework-programme. Research project coordinated by Claude GRASLAND (CNRS/Paris).The EuroBroadMap project brings together several universities and research centres, located in a dozen of different countries in Europe and elsewhere. This project is financed under the 7th Framework Program for Research of the European Commission. The main objective of this project is to account for and study the perceptions and representations of the role of the European Union as an international actor in a non-Eurocentric perspective .In combining several methodological approaches (qualitative and quantitative) and academic disciplines (geography, economics, sociology and political science), the research project aims at designing a «mental map» of the EU as seen by its external observers. By putting these findings into perspective with various other data, such as financial, commercial and migratory flows for instance, several conclusions could be thus drawn regarding the status of the EU as an international actor. Marwan HOBEIKA's contribution to the project falls within the scope of the fourth working package, which aims on one hand at collecting qualitative data on the national political visions of a number of target-countries regarding the European Union, and on the other hand attempts to study its role within the main international organisations and fora (UN, WTO) and also in the recent multilateral thematic conferences, notably on climate change (in Copenhagen) and the global financial crisis (in Pittsburgh). Researcher : Marwan Hobeika.
WES - Workshop on environment and security (WES)
The Workshops on Environment and Security (WES) provide a space for researchers from several academic backgrounds to discuss how environmental and security issues mutually influence each other. This collaborative effort is the product of a renewed partnership between Sciences Po Paris (Sciences Po) and the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) under the co-responsability of Prof. Edwin Zaccai, director of the Sustainable Development Study Centre (CEDD) and Krystel Wanneau, PhD at the Training and Teaching in International Politics (REPI). This initiative opened to thre additional partner institutions, the University of Geneva (UniGe), the University of Economics in Bratislava (UEBA) and the Fletcher School of Tufts University. For this first edition, we organize 5 workshops over a year, beginning in late 2014, each partner university hosting one workshop. PhD Researchers: Krystel Wanneau; Sameea Ahmed Hassim; Jacob Hasselbalch.
This research project analyses the process of institutionalization, and its limits, of the European nuclear non-proliferation policy since the end of the Cold war. It aims to explain why the major European States (France, Germany and Great Britain) act to a certain extent through the European Union (EU) and to identify how this common policy improves Europe’s standing – the UE and its big Member States – in the international political system. In a sociological view, the empirical analysis focuses on the export control of dual-use goods and the positions taken in the international negotiations regarding sensitive foreign nuclear programs. Although it is not the bulk of EU diplomatic activity, the study of the nuclear non-proliferation is very helpful to understand the dynamics of European integration and the ongoing transformations of the international system, because this file constitutes a central aspect of international politics. The hypotheses of this project on the governmental control of transfers of competence and the effects of Brussels bargaining question how the process of European integration affects the Member States and their diplomatic practices. Lead researcher: Florent Pouponneau.
ACROPOLIS Aid Effectiveness with a focus on fragile contexts
ACROPOLIS aims to support the decision-making of the Belgian Directorate General for Development Cooperation (DGD) by evidence-based research. The programme is funded by both ARES-CCD and VLIR-UOS. It brings together policymakers from DGD, Belgium Technical Cooperation (BTC), and other relevant governmental actors on the one hand and researchers from both French- and Dutch- speaking universities in Belgium on the other for a duration of three years (May 2014-2017). Non-governmental actors may be implied in the surrounding network around the core group of policy makers and researchers. The ACROPOLIS groups conduct academic research and provide academic services tailored to the Belgian development cooperation policymakers. The ultimate aim is continued professionalization and improvement in the quality – and so also the impact – of the Belgian development cooperation. Besides, the ACROPOLIS programme wishes to contribute to the international visibility of Belgian academic expertise in development cooperation. Three themes are covered by ACROPOLIS groups: Aid Effectiveness with a focus on fragile contexts (Mali, Niger, Rwanda, Burundi and DR Congo); Integration of the environmental and climate change themes in the transition towards sustainable development; Financing for development This research project belongs to the ACROPOLIS Aid Effectiveness with a focus on fragile contexts (Mali, Niger, Rwanda, Burundi and DR Congo). It brings together research fellows and academics from ULB, UCL, Ulg and UGent. The members of ULB implicated in this research program are Sidney Leclercq (REPI), under the direction of Prof. Barbara Delcourt, and Jessica Martini (Ecole de santé publique), under the direction of Prof. Bruno Dujardin.
GRAPAX I (Research group in support of peace policies)
Research on peace reenforcement policies initiated by Belgium in the Great Lakes region. Lead researcher : Marta Martinelli.
Based on a survey, this project aims at mapping prevailing ideas among academics, practitioners, activists, lobbyists, and decisions makers regarding intellectual property rights. Lead researcher: Jean-Frédéric Morin.
The international genius of colonization : Léopold II between history and memory
Lead researcher: André Yinda.
This project in partnership with prof. Richard Gold (McGill University) aims at creating a new intellectual property index, covering more than 100 countries, and identifying economic, social and political variables that have an effect on it. Lead researcher: Jean-Frédéric Morin.
Exploring european normative preferences through international criminal justice issues
The project aimed at studying EU and Member States policies in the realm of International Criminal Justice. It focused on two major issues: EU and MS contribution to the creation of the International Criminal Court, its entry into force and current activities on the one hand; breakthroughs and setbacks in EU and MS policies regarding universal jurisdiction. Based on a qualitative approach, the research heavily relied on interviews with field actors and officials concerned with these issues. It has already given way to several presentations and publications. Lead researcher: Elena Aoun.
For an empiric political theory of structuring principles of international relations
In the wake of her doctoral thesis, Barbara Delcourt pursued her researches related to the meanings and transformations of structural principles of international relations. She aims at understanding and explaining what concepts such as sovereignty and governance mean concretely in the organization and power exercise on the international scene, taking into account different levels (infra-national, national, supranational, international) in which games of power play. From a epistemological point of view, the procedure is similar to a theoretical investigation related to concepts but whose concrete meanings and effects can't be brought out before the empirical analysis of a defined material is completed, and this in order to avoid risks generally associated to a theoretical approach principally speculative and detached of the political context in which concepts take a particular meaning. The case studies concerned by this initiative are focussed on the ex-Yugoslavia space and particularly on the experiences of international territories administration.
Legal Transplant under Asymmetrical Interests: From Coercion to Socialization
Several scholars have demonstrated that, in the 1980s, developed countries privileged a strategy based on coercion to promote their IP standards around the world. In the decade following the adoption of the TRIPs agreement, they came to favour the use of law over coercion. Major multilateral agreements were reached at WIPO, more than 50 bilateral agreements were signed with developing nations, and a plurilateral agreement is under negotiation. This project aims to assess the emergence of a third strategy. Constructivist theory suggests that IP norms could be transplanted to other countries by “norm entrepreneurs” who socialize foreign governments to American and European ideas, values, and beliefs in the IP system. More specifically, this project hypothesizes that U.S. and E.U technical assistance programmes offered to developing countries serves as a carrier for beliefs and, thus, for legal standards. Lead researcher: Jean-Frédéric Morin.
GRAPAX II (Research group in support of peace policies)
The ULB pole of this research project focuses on the security-development dimension of the international intervention in fragile states located in the Great Lakes region. GRAPAX work is divided between academic research (conferences, articles, etc.) and policy advising to Belgian Development cooperation (strategy drafting, policy briefs, recommendations, roundtables, notes). The main areas of work are international approaches to development cooperation (notably the workflows of INCAF - International Network for Conflict and Fragility ' at the OECD), fragility and its Belgian approach, transitional justice, international justice and rule of law promotion.
CIRCULEX: Flows of norms and actors in global environmental governance
This project in partnership with several other universities aims at studying interactions between elements of various interconnected international regimes, including the biodiversity regime and the climate regime. Lead researcher: Jean-Frédéric Morin.
The role of gender in security sector reform - Burundi, Liberia13.6
This project sets out to study the role of gender in security sector reforms in post-conflict states with the aim to analyze if the specific contexts In these fragile societies opens up for new power structures to emerge and replace previous gender hierarchies or if traditional gender roles are instead cemented by conservative structures. The project entails a sociological micro-analysis of the different actors involved in the implementation of the security sector reforms, with the aim to firstly identify the actors and thereafter include the findings in a larger constructivist theoretical framework that position the actors in the structural contexts. The proposed hypothesis is that post-conflict societies are prone to uphold conservative values and traditional roles, thereby constituting a constraining structure for agents of change and indirectly undermining women’s advancement in roles traditionally reserved for men, such as soldiers.
