Larissa Versloot defends her PhD thesis at the Department of Political Science

PHD defence

Candidate

Larissa Muriel Versloot

Title

"Maintaining Trust in International Relations-Trust reproduction and protection in everyday diplomatic practice at the European Union".

The thesis

The thesis can be loaned from the Royal Danish Library.

Time and venue

Monday 17 October 2022 from 14:00-17:00 at Centre for Health and Society, Øster Farimagsgade 5, DK-1353 Copenhagen K., room 1.1.02. Kindly note that the defence will start precisely at 14:00.

The defence will also be available on Zoom.

Assessment committee

  • Professor Anders Wivel, Department of Political Science, University of Copenhagen (chair)
     
  • Professor Stephanie Hofmann, European University Institute
     
  • Professor Nicholas J. Wheeler, University of Birmingham

Abstract

This dissertation is concerned with studying trust maintenance in multilateral diplomacy. It focuses on a segment of international relations where it is commonly presumed trust has manifested itself: the diplomatic community of the Council of the European Union (EU). Theoretically, the dissertation argues for understanding trust as a social process of trusting which is constituted via practical enactments. Empirically, this dissertation gives a unique insight into the workings of trust in EU diplomacy. From an in-depth engagement with the field, it distills prominent practices for the reproduction and protection of trust.

Taken together, this dissertation is a call for taking trust maintenance seriously as an independent process next to the emergence of trust, or the transformation of distrust to trust in international relations. Against the background of what is often seen as a changing world order, this dissertation opens space to understand why trust may weaken or wear out in some places and retain its strength in others.