Representation of a Changing Self: An EU Performance in the Middle East

Abstract

Tutkimus osallistuu kansainvälisen politiikan alan teoreettiseen keskusteluun konstruktivistisista lähtökohdista käsin. Se tarkastelee kansainvälistä toimijuutta ja identiteetin muotoutumista vuorovaikutussuhteessa muiden toimijoiden kanssa. Toimijuuden kehittyminen nähdään nelivaiheisena prosessina, johon kuuluu itseyden kuvittelu, nimeäminen, esitys/suorittaminen (performance) ja tunnustaminen/tunnistaminen. Esityksellä on olennainen sija. Siinä kollektiivinen toimija asettaa edustajan toimimaan nimissään ja luomaan tai vahvistamaan aktiivista vuorovaikutussuhdetta muihin toimijoihin.

Tutkimuksen keskeinen tavoite on teoreettisesti jäsentää kansainvälisten toimijoiden toiminnan tarkoituksia. Tutkimuksen mukaan kansainvälisen toimijan edustaja osallistuu edustamansa kollektiivin identiteetin muotoutumiseen. Konstruktivistisen näkökulman eräs lähtöoletus on, että kollektiivinen identiteetti on ensisijainen suhteessa kollektiivin intresseihin. Näin ollen muotoutumassa olevan kollektiivin asettaman edustajan ensisijainen tehtävä on osallistua edustamansa kollektiivin rakentamiseen. Edustuksella on kuitenkin myös kaksi muuta tarkoitusta. Yhtäältä edustajan toiminta nähdään välineenä yleisesti hyväksyttyjen päämäärien toteuttamiseen toimintaympäristössä. Tämä viittaa toimijan moraaliseen velvoitteeseen vaikuttaa asioiden kulkuun. Toisaalta edustamiseen sisältyy myös sellainen sopimuksenvarainen ulottuvuus, joka ei välttämättä suoranaisesti palvele yleisesti hyväksyttyjä päämääriä, vaan hyödyntää annettua toimintatilaa esimerkiksi edustautuvan kollektiivin omien etujen ajamiseen.

Tutkimuksen empiirinen osa käsittelee Euroopan unionin ulkopoliittista edustusta Lähi-idässä. Tutkimusaineistona on käytetty pääasiassa haastatteluja. Hermeneuttinen tutkimusote nostaa aineistosta selkeästi esiin kolme edellä mainittua toiminnan tarkoitusta, joiden teoreettisessa tarkastelussa on tutkimuksen painopiste. Ensinnäkin EU:n Lähi-idän edustajalla voidaan havaita olleen merkitystä EU:n institutionaalisen identiteetin muotoutumisessa sen pyrkiessä kohti laaja-alaista ulkopoliittista toimijuutta. Toiseksi erityisedustajalla on ollut rooli rauhanprosessin edistämisessä, joskin palestiinalaisten toisen kansannousun aikana väkivallan kierre on romuttanut niitä aikaansaannoksia, joita alueella nähtiin Oslon prosessin alettua vuonna 1993. Kolmanneksi voidaan arvioida, että ulkopoliittinen edustus osaltaan myös turvaa edustautuvan kollektiivin ja sen jäsenten intressejä. EU:n kyseen ollessa tämän kolmannen tarkoituksen tukeminen kuitenkin edellyttäisi Lähi-idän erityisedustajalta nykyistä korkeampaa poliittista profiilia sekä unionilta kokonaisuutena sellaista yhtenäisyyttä, jota sillä ei nykyisellään ole.

The purpose of this study is two-fold. First, it aims at participating in the discussion about theorising institutional identity formation. It focuses on micro-level policy making as an important factor both in identity formation of the entity as a whole and with respect to the environment where the action takes place. Following the Peircean trichotomy of representamen , locus of representation is then scrutinised in more detail so that the focus is on the functions of representative. The primary interest of the research is thus on transformation: first, concerning the represented collective, and second, regarding the extent that the entity can influence its environment through a particular locus of representation. More generally, the thesis is an exercise on how to better operationalise the constructivist claim that identity formation is primary to promoting values and interests in relations with other actors.

The evolution of the EU as a whole has been characterised by two major sets of conflicting views about the nature of integration, and also the analyses of the CFSP most often refer to these two dominant paradigms: liberal intergovernmentalism (based largely on neorealist assumptions) and neofunctionalism. I begin the study by an overview of these mainstream theories of European integration. The focus is on neofunctionalism as it, unlike intergovernmentalism, acknowledges transformation in actorness as the loyalties (presumably) gradually shift from the national to the supranational level. However, mainstream approaches in European studies any more than IR in general do not seek to explain the change that is more fundamental than a mere re-evaluation of priorities.

The constructivist turn in IR has added identity and norms to the discussion, maintaining that neither rationality and states interests nor spill-over and increasing interdependence as such can explain the logic of change. Although constructivists do not deny the existence of the material world, they argue that both material and social reality become meaningful in interactive processes. The world as we experience it is socially constructed. Changes in social reality occur through interaction that has an influence on those participating in it. This is a significant shift away from more traditional approaches as it implies the primacy of identities over interests. Constructivism has been credited with the aim to understand the centrality of identity in all interaction and transformation that takes place both in the environment of action and actors identities. However, it is characteristic to the wide variety of constructivist approaches that they lack tools to operationalise the metatheoretical assumptions.

I suggest that identity formation includes four distinguishable but temporally overlapping phases: imagining, naming, performance, and recognition. After elaborating these phases, I focus on representation as performance, the functions of which are multifaceted contrary to what could be assumed on the basis of the mainstream of IR literature. Representation involves the continuous quest for outside approval of the imagined and named being. Recognition of the self presented in performances is based on the others interpretations. Interpretation of performance involves producing a sign as a representation of a particular object. Thus, besides distinguishing the collective self from the other, existence of otherness is needed in the process of identification also to recognise the identity under construction. The view on representation is greatly influenced by Charles Peirce s sign theory. Peirce maintained that representation involves three components: the represented object, the representative, and interpreters. According to him, the representative has three different functions with respect to the represented object. I claim that these functions can be found in all performances in social reality, including world affairs. Following the Peircean division, I elaborate these dimensions as iconicity, indexicality and symbolicity.

The empirical part of the thesis is meant to illustrate the purposes of representation. As for motivation for action, studies in IR mainly focus either on the self-interests of the actors or their values and moral obligation to act. By drawing attention to identity, constructivist orientation assumes that performances of international actors have also a third motive: reconstructing and maintaining the identity of the acting self. External events could therefore be seen as opportunities for identity formation, but often they also include one or both of the other considerations: They may pose a moral obligation to act or they may be treated as an occasion to promote or safeguard self-interests.

The case I analyse is the EU s political involvement in the conflictual surroundings of the Middle East. The focus is on the performance of the EU s special representative. Besides discussing the visible results (or lack of them) in peace negotiations and reconciliation, and examining the possible self-interests that are served by the third party involvement, the analysis aims to enrich the discussion by bringing in the third dimension of representation which focuses on the formation of the represented in relation to an external event.

The primary sources of the case study illustrating the theoretical framework consist mainly in accounts of the significance of the special envoy s action by foreign policy officials who have been participating in the process. In addition to the non-scheduled structured interviews made for the thesis, the research is supplemented with journalistic accounts and other primary source materials including governmental and EU documents. The primary sources are analysed by means of dialogical hermeneutics, which does not rely on contextual fixity of meaning but allows different interpretations within a given context and emphasises the multidimensional character of a text.