This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by LARSEN, H. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

British and Danish European Policies in the 1990s:

A Discourse Approach

University of Copenhagen

The aim of this article is to compare the respective domestic backgrounds for British and Danish policies towards Europe and to examine how these have shaped the European policies of the two countries in the 1990s. The article aims to cast light on the role of states' understanding of European integration through empirical application of a theoretical approach, discourse analysis. The main argument is that the patterns of understanding of `Europe' show important linguistic similarities in that the base of the dominant discourse is instrumental and the primary political conflict is between sub-discourses of this instrumental discourse. In the 1990s, the difference between the two countries is in relation to which salient social and political actors adhere to what sub-discourses on Europe. The article argues that the differences between the two countries' European policy lines are shaped by the different understandings of the state/nation. The different understandings of the state/nation have influenced the content and procedures of policy. British policy in general, and in the 1990s in particular, has been dominated by a neoliberal understanding of the state, and Danish policy by more welfare thinking.

European Journal of International Relations, Vol. 5, No. 4, 451-483 (1999)
DOI: 10.1177/1354066199005004003


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				H. Larsen A Distinct FPA for Europe? Towards a Comprehensive Framework for Analysing the Foreign Policy of EU Member States European Journal of International Relations, September 1, 2009; 15(3): 537 - 566. [Abstract] [PDF]

				H. Larsen Danish Foreign Policy and the Balance between the EU and the US: The Choice between Brussels and Washington after 2001 Cooperation and Conflict, June 1, 2009; 44(2): 209 - 230. [Abstract] [PDF]

				M. Braun Talking Europe -- the Dilemma of Sovereignty and Modernization Cooperation and Conflict, December 1, 2008; 43(4): 397 - 420. [Abstract] [PDF]

				H. Moshirzadeh Discursive Foundations of Iran's Nuclear Policy Security Dialogue, December 1, 2007; 38(4): 521 - 543. [Abstract] [PDF]

				J. H. HAAHR `Our Danish Democracy': Community, People and Democracy in the Danish Debate on the Common Currency Cooperation and Conflict, March 1, 2003; 38(1): 27 - 47. [Abstract] [PDF]

				T. DIEZ Europe as a Discursive Battleground: Discourse Analysis and European Integration Studies Cooperation and Conflict, March 1, 2001; 36(1): 5 - 38. [Abstract] [PDF]