My research interests
My research interests revolve around several overlapping areas. The first concerns the role of informal governance (which I am exploring in several published and work-in-progress publications). I have also been developing a social relational research agenda for the study of states’ power in international negotiations. Additionally, I am interested in the European Union’s response to Russia’s war of aggression. Lastly, I am investigating the impact of Brexit on EU foreign policy coordination as well as post-Brexit EU-UK relations in the area of foreign policy.
Informality, multilateralism and global governance
In my PhD dissertation, I explored the causes, roles and implications of informality in EU foreign policy negotiations. In a paper that has recently appeared in the European Journal of International Relations, I specifically focus on the added value of informal groupings for the survival of multilateral negotiations.
Related talks:
‘The Room Where It Happens: The Role of Informality in EU Foreign Policy Negotiations’, European Politics and Society Seminar Series, University of Groningen, 18 October 2023. https://www.rug.nl/research/icog/research/research-centres/democratic-cultures-and-politics/events/2023-10-18-eps-lovato?lang=en
Social relational research agenda
I am working on a social relational research agenda to conceptualise state power in international negotiations. My co-authored work with Dr Heidi Maurer has appeared in the Journal of European Public Policy and the Journal of European Integration. As part of this research agenda, I am also leading a UACES research network on EU bordering practices with Heidi Maurer and Professor Ana Juncos, RELATE (European Studies in a Relational Universe).
Post-Brexit EU foreign policy
I am investigating the impact of Brexit on EU foreign policy and post-Brexit UK-EU relations in the realm of foreign policy.
In a first paper, I explore what happens to an IO’s cooperation patterns and internal negotiation dynamics once a member state leaves. Taking Brexit – perhaps one of the most emblematic instances of voluntary withdrawal from an IO – as a case study, I combine social network analysis and qualitative case study to explore the effect of the 2016 referendum on EU foreign policy cooperation networks.
In a second paper, I examine the UK’s influence over EU foreign policy before and after Brexit and compare the role London played in the 2014 and 2022 Russian sanctions negotiations. The paper will be part of a Special Issue co-edited by Dr Sarah Wolff, Dr Karolina Pomorska, and Professor Richard Whitman, as part of the NEXTEUK project led by Dr Wolff.
Crises and Europeanisation of foreign policy
Using Russia’s war of aggression as a case study, Professor Ana Juncos, Dr Karolina Pomorska and I are working on a paper exploring the impact of crises on Europeanisation dynamics. In the paper, we argue that the response to the war has revealed a qualitative shift in processes of Europeanisation, with changes to cross-loading, uploading, and downloading dynamics. With the aim of investigating these changes further, our contribution relies on the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine as a case study to explore how crises shape Europeanisation dynamics in EU foreign and security policy. Relying on primary and secondary sources as well as interviews with EU and national officials, we show how the coordinative Europeanisation we have witnessed since the start of the war can be attributed not only to the characteristics of the crisis itself, but also to cumulative learning and progressive institutional transformations stemming from previous crises.
Related talks:
‘Coordinative Europeanisation and Russia’s war of aggression: how crises shape Europeanisation dynamics in EU foreign policy’, Online Seminar Series of the Young ECPR Network on Europeanisation, 28 November 2024.
Digitalisation of EU foreign policy
Together with Dr Federica Bicchi, I explored the digitalisation of diplomatic practices in EU foreign policy. The paper is now out on The Hague Journal of Diplomacy. We analyse the evolving use of virtual peer-to-peer communication tools within the EU foreign policy system, with the aim to understand how available digital instruments shape the ways in which diplomats interact. We explore a wide array of ICTs (Information and Communication Technologies) employed by European diplomats, from the COREU network to WhatsApp and Signal, and assess their effect on the modes and contents of EU foreign policy diplomatic practices.
Public engagement
Most recently, I authored an opinion piece for the Irish Association of Contemporary European Studies (IACES), commenting on the role of domestic political constraints on Italy’s effectiveness in EU-level negotiations.
I contributed to the H2020 project JOINT with a literature review on the internal contestation of EU foreign policy. The review was included in the Think Tank Review of the Council of the EU (November 2021).
From 2018 to 2021, I was also a team member on the Oxford-based project Europe’s Stories, led by Professor Timothy Garton Ash. As part of my contribution to the project, I co-authored a chapter in the final report, titled ‘Europe in the world’. The report, Young Europeans Speak to EU, tried to understand what young Europeans what the EU to be and to do across a variety of different policy areas (including foreign policy). You can also listen to the podcast series where the authors of the various chapters discuss the main findings and recommendations to policymakers.
Peer-reviewed publications
Sjursen, H., Bicchi, F. and Lovato, M. (2024) Keep on talking! The resilience of multilateral communications in EU foreign policy, Journal of Common Market Studies. Online first. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcms.13691.
Lovato, M. (2024) How informality keeps multilateralism going: the role of informal groupings in EU foreign policy negotiations, European Journal of International Relations. Online first. https://doi.org/10.1177/13540661241269782.
Maurer, H. and Lovato, M. (2024) Group emotions and their role in EU foreign policy: a social relational model on how emotions travel between EU member states. Journal of European Integration, 46(5): 795–815. https://doi.org/10.1080/07036337.2024.2363378
Juncos, A., Lovato, M. and Pomorska, K. (2024) Coordinative Europeanization and Russia’s war of aggression: how crises shape Europeanization dynamics in EU foreign policy. Comparative European Politics. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41295-024-00390-8
Bicchi, Federica and Marianna Lovato (2023) “Diplomats as Skilful Bricoleurs of the Digital Age: EU Foreign Policy Communications from the COREU to WhatsApp”. The Hague Journal of Diplomacy (published online ahead of print 2023). https://doi.org/10.1163/1871191x-bja10174
Lovato, Marianna (2022) “Getting your House in Order for EU Negotiations: When Domestic Constraints Condition Italy’s Performance at the EU Level”, Journal of Common Market Studies, 60(4): 963-982. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcms.13293
Lovato, Marianna and Heidi Maurer (2022) “Process and Position Power: a Social Relational Research Agenda About State Power in Negotiations, Journal of European Public Policy, 29(12):1996-2004. https://doi.org/10.1080/13501763.2022.2135755.
Other publications
Lovato, Marianna (2022) “Italy, Monti and Draghi: the case for skilled individual negotiators as catalysts for EU influence?, IACES Opinion Piece. Available here.
Lovato, Marianna (2021) “The Internal Contestation of EU Foreign and Security Policy”, JOINT Research Papers No. 1, pp. 1 – 46. Available here.
de France, Olivier and Marianna Lovato (2021) “Europe in the World”. In: Garton Ash, T. (ed) Young Europeans Speak to EU. Dahrendorf Programme at the European Studies Centre, (ISBN 978-1-5272-9957-3). Available here.
Lovato, Marianna (2021) “The COREU Network: How Member States Negotiate EU Foreign Policy in a Digital Environment”, NORTIA teaching case study. Available here.
Marianna Lovato 