Agents and learning in foreign policy-making: the EU's involvement in the Moldova protracted conflict, 2002-2019

Thesis

This thesis seeks to analyze how the EU learns, and in particular, how the EU learns in its foreign policy-making in protracted conflicts. Through a case study analysis of Moldova’s protracted conflict with the Transnistrian de facto breakaway state between 2002-2019, I examine the conditions through which learning is facilitated and leads to policy change in the EU. Using my original Theoretical Model of Learning – an adapted model building on previous learning theories looking at learning as a constitutive process – I analyze the adjustment of goals, instruments, and processes in policy to examine how the EU learns, who are the agents involved, and where learning takes place. A qualitative analysis is conducted of 150 official documents and 8 elite interviews. The project identifies conditions under which learning and policy change impact EU foreign policy towards Moldova, and how it has evolved between 2002-2019 in diffusing lessons learned from the individual, to the organizational levels. I argue theories of learning thus far have failed to account not only for the constituent levels of policy reflection informing the learning process, but also in illustrating the nuanced forms in which learning can manifest, often in reaction to external political shocks. I assert the prevalent conditions impacting EU learning are twofold: The presence of agents of change on-the-ground where policy diffusion is buttressed; and engagement of local agents through bestowment of issue ownership, as it balances policy learning entrenchment at the organizational level.

Authors: Kapodistria, K

• Type of award: MPhil
• Level of award: Masters
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: policy change; frozen conflict; Transnistria; EU foreign policy; policy instrument; Moldova; policy learning; lesson learning
• Subjects: International relations; Politics and government; European Union countries; Europe, Eastern