The role of the High Representative in leading EU foreign policy on Kosovo and Ukraine: a comparative study of foreign policy integration

Existing approaches entangle the analysis of integration in foreign and security policy into a paradigmatic supranationalintergovernmental dichotomy. In this way they fail to grasp the complexity and - at times - fluidity of governance practices within the EU foreign and security policy institutional framework. In order to fill this theoretical and empirical gap in an encompassing manner, the dissertation asks why EU involvement in foreign and security policy follows different patterns and under which conditions the EU Member States and institutions engage in integrated modes of governance in foreign and security policy. Elaborating an original model for the study of the nature and development of EU foreign and security policy through an innovation of the new intergovernmentalist approach, this study indicates the need of adopting rational choice institutional approaches to explain delegation, discretion and control relations between the legislative and the executive branches of government also in areas generally corresponding to core state powers. Inevitably, these include foreign and security policies. This evaluation is derived from an empirical account of two cases of EU governance in the context of the EU foreign and security policy broadly defined. Through a comparative study the dissertation offers an in-depth analysis of the role played by the High Representative in leading EU foreign and security policy on Kosovo and on Ukraine.