Secondary foreign policy as a peace-building tool: A European model? The contribution of cross-border cooperation to reconciliation and stability in Europe

This article forms part of a Special Issue of this journal: Secondary Foreign policy – local international relations: can local cross border cooperation function as a tool to peace-building and reconciliation in border regions?

Abstract:

Since the 1950s, cross-border cooperation has been operating as a tool for reconciliation in Europe. However, this secondary foreign policy was implemented differently in each border region and did not take place simultaneously. While it started as both a top-down and bottom-up movement shortly after the end of the Second World War in Western Europe, it was limited to communist party organized symbolism in Central and Eastern Europe.

Here, cross-border cooperation could only truly be employed as an instrument of reconciliation after the end of the Cold War. This paper emphasizes the historical development of cross-border cooperation as a peace-building instrument and assesses its potential model function for other regions in the world: shifting from reconciliation in specific border regions after the Second World War to a more generalized approach to ‘secondary foreign policy’ used as a tool for the European Integration process, the changing functions of cross-border cooperation will be shown.

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