Theorizing and Testing Cross‐Loading: The EU Common Foreign and Security Policy and Polish Concessions to Germany's Russia Policy

The article discusses the role of the European Union (EU) in facilitating concessions between member states which, paradoxically, pursue discrepant foreign interests. First, the article develops a theoretical framework for the under‐researched Europeanization model of cross‐loading. Here, strategic socialization, experiential learning, and policy transfer conceptualize how national actors adopt cooperative practices from the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) into their bilateral level. Meanwhile, rational institutionalism and the politics of scale help theorize tactical coalition‐ and consensus‐building specifically between discrepant national interests, with regard to states' complementary influence capabilities within the CFSP. Second, the article tests cross‐loading to confirm Poland's conciliatory Russia policy in 2008–14 as an EU‐induced concession to Germany. Arguably, Poland who pursued its strategic interests in the Eastern Partnership tactically adopted Germany's approach towards developing parallel EU–Russia policies. Poland thus recognized German skills to build consensus on the Eastern Partnership with stronger and Russian‐oriented member states.