Geopolitics and Expertise: Knowledge and Authority in European Diplomacy

‘This book transcends the now problematic divide between representational and practical approaches to understanding geopolitical relations. More specifically, much research on the EU tends to focus more on the formal workings of the institutions and rarely penetrates the corridors of power to consider what actually happens within the bureaucracy itself. The book is to be welcomed as a contribution to theoretical debate in human geography and as a significant contribution to EU Studies.’ John Agnew, UCLA ‘In contrast to the oceans of generalization about the European Union, here is a high resolution study of the balance of interests and power based on years of face–to–face interactions with diplomats and Eurocrats who inhabit Brussels’ European Quarter.’ James D. Sidaway, National University of Singapore Geopolitics and Expertise is an in–depth exploration of how expert knowledge is created and exercised in European Union institutions. It traces how geopolitical arguments are deployed by foreign policy professionals there and how these practices fit into and transform the social milieu of the European Quarter. Rigorous, empirical, and engaging, the book offers a nuanced analysis of diplomatic practice, a sphere that is opaque and inaccessible by design. It incorporates over 100 interviews with EU foreign policy professionals over the course of seven years. This study is unique in its focus on qualitative and contextual evidence gathered from interpersonal interviews rather than quantitative and questionnaire–based data. A rare full–length analysis of transnational decision–making, the book elucidates the complexity and creativity of European diplomatic practice. Blending human geography with international relations, anthropology, and sociology, this account illuminates the inner workings of knowledge and power in transnational regulatory institutions.