European Union Foreign Policy Actorness and the Limits of Collective Action in EU-Nigeria Relations

This doctoral study develops an original theoretical contribution to the EU foreign policy actorness debate by examining the operational limits of EU collective action in the specific context of EU-Nigeria relations, using a novel empirical research design that tests actorness conditions across multiple EU-Nigeria policy domains simultaneously. The scholarly debate on EU foreign policy actorness, originating with Sjöstedt's capabilities-expectations gap and refined through Bretherton and Vogler's actorness framework, has not been systematically applied to a sustained Africa bilateral relationship context. This research builds an original Differentiated Actorness model that conceptualises variation in EU collective action performance across policy domains (trade, security, migration, development, human rights) rather than treating EU actorness as a unified variable. Empirical analysis draws on an original dataset covering 10 years of EU-Nigeria joint statements, bilateral agreement texts, and EU Delegation programme documents (2014-2024), supplemented by 55 elite interviews with EU member state diplomats in Abuja, EU Delegation officials, Nigerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs EU desk officers, and civil society EU engagement monitors. The study employs qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) to identify the conditions under which EU actorness succeeds or fails across different EU-Nigeria policy domains. Original contributions include the Differentiated Actorness model, QCA findings, and the most comprehensive primary data collection on EU-Nigeria bilateral relations in the scholarly literature. Keywords: EU foreign policy actorness, EU-Nigeria relations, collective action, QCA, differentiated actorness.