The Search for Policy Coherence: Analyzing the coherence between the EU's development policy and foreign policy

Abstract: The European Union is one of the world’s most impactful development actors. As such, it has adopted the Policy Coherence for Development framework in order to minimize contradictions between policies that affect developing countries. The ultimate goal of the framework is to increase development effectiveness to the welfare of developing partners. However, the existing literature is rich in doubts of the framework’s feasibility, as well as arguments that the EU’s development policy is increasingly executing the union's foreign interests rather than the interests of developing countries. This thesis contributes to the literature by conducting an in-depth analysis on the coherence between the thematic objectives in European Union’s development policy and its foreign policy. As a double case study, thematic coding analysis is conducted to uncover the policies’ objectives and main themes. A framework that conceptualizes policy coherence in terms of overlaps and contradictions then guides the analysis. The findings show the complexity of the Policy Coherence for Development framework, and demonstrate the many ways in which both overlaps and contradictions between the two policies can be identified. Ultimately, the thesis argues the importance of in-depth studies that illustrate the complexity of policy coherence to underpin the larger debate.