When the Comprehensive Approach Narrows
From “Carrots” to “Sticks” in the Iranian Nuclear File
By Stefan WaizerEnglish
This article questions the limits of the EU’s comprehensive approach in the caseof the common non-proliferation policy towards Iran. Combining sociology ofpolitical sectors and role sociology, I elaborate the hypothesis that the mobilisation and the sudden abandon of the comprehensive approach constitute theobjectivation of inter- and intra-sectorial struggles taking place in the contextof international negotiations. Based on this socio-historic reconstruction ofthe non-institutionalisation of the comprehensive approach, I illustrate that theinstitutionalisation of European foreign policy is not necessarily the result ofthe Europeanization of its builders.