The Mechanisms of Institutional Conflict in the European Union

"In an era when institutional conflict has seemingly become the norm in EU affairs, this book is a must read. Theoretically, instead of pulling existing work ‘off the shelf,’ Norman develops an innovative constructivist account of the social mechanisms shaping institutional change. Methodologically, he demonstrates how interpretive process tracing can be used to study such dynamics. The result is a book that not only tells us important things about the EU, but also contributes to central debates over theory and method." - Jeffrey T. Checkel, Simon Fraser University, Canada, and Peace Research Institute Oslo, Norway.

"Norman has produced an outstanding reflection on the dynamics of institutional conflict within the EU institutional framework. By linking new theoretical insights derived from international relations constructivism with empirical investigations in highly interesting case studies, the book makes a substantial contribution to our understanding of both the institutional dynamics and the political role of EU institutions. It is highly recommended for anyone interested in European security or European studies more generally." - Christian Kaunert, Professor of International Politics, Director of the European Institute for Security and Justice, University of Dundee, UK.

"This is a conceptually sophisticated, empirically rich, and theoretically meaningful contribution to the study of EU institutional dynamics. It can be read as an innovative constructivist approach at interpretive process tracing, an inductive account of the underexplored influence of EU-level legal services (Council, Commission, EP) in shaping integration discourse, and as a nuanced story of how JHA and CFSP have "communitarized" from humble intergovernmental origins. The impressive research design uses empirical triangulation and engages in alternative explanation testing in ways that few studies actually deliver on, and thus contributes to the growing interest at moving beyond either/or debates between rational institutionalists and constructivists." - Jeffrey Lewis, Cleveland State University, USA