Micro communities of practice and EU’s foreign policy:Rome, Brussels, and Paris

Although the practice approach and the community of practice have gen-erally been studied, the relationship between communities of practice has mostly escaped the attention of EU foreign policy scholars. This empirical investigation contributes to this relatively less explored area. Its central question constitutes whether and how the practice approach makes sense of the actions of micro communities of practice focused on European for-eign policy, when practices involve actions at the local, national and Euro-pean/supranational levels. It motivates an interest in the practice mechanism, since this perspective allows the identification of otherwise unex-plored experiences that are critical to the functioning of European foreign policy. In fact, it argues that a practice approach helps us to distinguish different understandings of the EU that might be crucial for the perfor-mance of European foreign policy. It applies the practice approach to three micro communities of practice which constitute the case study: in Rome, Brussels and Paris, all of them focused on ‘European foreign policy and/on China’s Belt and Road initiative’. Methodologically, it combines a discourse analysis with content analysis, and shows that the use of these and of the practice perspective demonstrates acceptance of the EU, resistance to it, and suggestions about improving the EU’s foreign policy. The analysis of the results concentrates on theory and policy. Regarding the theory, the findings demonstrate that the practice approach makes sense of actions of communities of practice operating at a local, national, and Europe-an/supranational level. Regarding policy, the findings provide evidence that the practices examined here contribute suggestions regarding new substance for European foreign policy. The investigation employs sources derived from the author’s conversation at the citizens’ level in Rome in the context of China and the EU; it draws on the European institutions’ official documents to explore policy making in Brussels regarding China; and uses a diplomatic strategy to investigate a Europe that speaks with one voice, in Paris.