Analyzing the Export of Norms outside the European Union

This special issue proposes to present and discuss the issue of the exportation of norms in international relations, in particular in the framework of the external policies of the European Union (EU). The notion of transfer has largely been used in sociology, public policy and comparative studies in order to describe the process of export of norms, policies and institutions. In the framework of European Studies, it has encountered some success though the work on Europeanisation of internal as well as external policies. In order to respond to criticism expressed against the concept of transfer, the eclectic approach adopted here proposes to let open the question of the choice of the concepts from the “policy transfer studies” depending on four factors: the nature of the norms exported, the nature of the policies, the motivations of the actors – who are seldom only European institutions, but also national actors, international organizations, non-governmental actors – and the role of their interactions.