Home – 2. Concept, Methods and Analyses

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Work Package No WP2
Name Concept, Methods and Analyses
Co-Lead NUPI & CBS
Participating Institutions All Partners
Activity March ’23 – Feb ’27

Short description

Building on the NAVIGATOR analytical framework outlined in the proposal, WP2 will provide conceptual, theoretical, and methodological guidance to the empirical investigations in WP3-8. This includes an elaboration of the established NAVIGATOR analytical framework, as well as methodological guidelines for the case studies. The outcomes of this WP will be project-related (constructing analytical and conceptual frameworks), policy-relevant (developing methods for identifying tools, policy changes to strengthen the multilateral system), and academic (peer-reviewed articles).

Main objectives

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Provide a conceptual and methodological framework ensuring project-wide coherence between the empirical and analytical components of the project (including training of participants).

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Ensure partners share common understanding of the key terms, concepts, and methods.

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Construct a robust yet flexible methodological framework enabling comparative research across fields and cases.

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Ensure a gender-sensitive approach to the research and encourage conceptual, theoretical, and methodological innovation.

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Produce the NAVIGATOR data nest and the central analytical outputs.

Core tasks

TASK

01

Common training March ’23 – Aug ’23

NUPI and CBS will further develop the conceptual and methodological framework and conduct a training of all the researchers during the first partner meeting. With the input received at the training workshop, NUPI and CBS will prepare a working paper on the NAVIGATOR methodology to be applied in the case studies WP3-8.

TASK

02

Global governance in transition March ’23 – Feb. ’27

The team will detail variation in global governance arrangements and mechanisms, identify key trends in geopolitics and multilateral cooperation, and refine the propositions for how these trends impact the EU and Member States’ influence in different policy domains. The conceptual analysis will initially result in a working paper. Said working paper will be used to frame the NAVIGATOR dataset with key variables and their input parameters being described in the dataset’s codebook appendix. The findings uploaded to the NAVIGATOR data nest from will be systematically analysed and result in domain comparisons, theoretical implications, and an identification of potential policy impacts. The revised version of the paper will be presented at the International Studies Association’s annual conference. The working paper will then be submitted to International Organization. The dataset will receive input from the case study work packages during the course of the project and will be submitted to The Review of International Organizations for publication at the end of the project.

TASK

03

Regional perspectives Feb ’24 – Feb ’26

For this task, NUPI and CBS will start by developing questions for the two surveys conducted by ECFR, with inputs from other partners. These are the ECFR EU survey and the ECFR global survey (to be established). We will utilize the data from the survey polling throughout the project (ECFR national is continuous, ECFR global is semi-annual). The results from the surveys will feed into NAVIGATOR’s regional perspectives analysis to provide perspectives on shifting geopolitical factors and powers such as China, India, Russia, and the United States, and also offer assessment of the evolving role of key regional institutions such as Mercosur, ASEAN, and the African Union. The regional perspectives analysis will result in a working paper, presented at workshops in Johannesburg, Tokyo, and Ottawa. The workshops will include key regional policymakers and leading academics. A reworked version of the paper will be presented at the Council for European Studies annual conference, and the final version will be submitted as an academic article. Key findings will be developed into a policy brief with recommendations to the EU and its member states.

TASK

04

EU in global governance Feb ’26 – Feb. ’27

NUPI and CBS will take the lead in identifying variation between issue-specific governance arrangements based on data and findings from WP3-8, uploaded to the NAVIGATOR data nest. We will compare the role of the EU in the different issue-areas and identify how different governance arrangements – as expressed in the search tool – lend themselves to different pathways of action. A central task here will be to identify the trade-offs between legitimacy and effectiveness in different regions and what these imply for the EUs overarching objectives. HUJI will contribute to this task by detailing the actors, institutions, narratives, and norms the EU and its member states can use to pursue pathways of action towards transnational democracy. Key findings will be developed into a working paper, to be submitted as an academic article in European Journal of International Relations. A final result under this task will be a NAVIGATOR policy brief summing up overall findings of the project and providing pathways of action for the EU and its member states.

Delivrables

D2.1 month 6 – Aug.’23

Working paper on the NAVIGATOR methodology
D2.2 month 12 – Feb. ’24

Working paper on the global governance in transition
D2.3 month 24 – Feb.’25

Working paper on regional perspectives
D2.4 month 36 – Feb..’26

Global NAVIGATOR policy brief on regional perspectives
D2.5 month 36 – Feb.’26

Working paper on the EU in global governance
D2.6 month 48 – Feb.’27

Global NAVIGATOR policy brief on the EU in global governance