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ERC project DISINTEGRATION @disintegrationerc.bsky.social · 30/04/2025

Thanks for following us along the way! It has been quite a ride We believe and hope that DISINTEGRATION’s insights will contribute to a better understanding of the challenges to international cooperation that continue to emerge. 20/20

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ERC project DISINTEGRATION @disintegrationerc.bsky.social · 30/04/2025

Huge thanks also go to DISINTEGRATION’s stellar advisory board: Tanja Börzel, @sarahobolt.bsky.social, @jonastallberg.bsky.social and @dustintingley.bsky.social gave feedback, reflection, new ideas and most of all a lot of encouragement to the project. Thank you so much for everything! 18/20

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ERC project DISINTEGRATION @disintegrationerc.bsky.social · 30/04/2025

All of this has only been possible because DISINTEGRATION allowed the collaboration of a wonderful group of people. (and of course thanks to the @erc.europa.eu, who made all of this possible) 16/20

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ERC project DISINTEGRATION @disintegrationerc.bsky.social · 30/04/2025

One of the achievements we are most proud of is that we have contributed to building the community of scholars interested in the contestation of international cooperation more broadly. DISINTEGRATION organized six workshops bringing together scholars from diverse subfields. 15/20

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ERC project DISINTEGRATION @disintegrationerc.bsky.social · 30/04/2025

Our project produced – and continues to produce – a lot of output, both on various aspects of the accommodation dilemma framework, and on broader (non-)cooperation dynamics. In the coming weeks, we will post a link to each article and short summaries. 14/20

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ERC project DISINTEGRATION @disintegrationerc.bsky.social · 30/04/2025

We have collected a lot of data in the course of the DISINTEGRATION project, most of which is available publicly in various repositories. In the coming weeks, we will post more information on each dataset. 13/20

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ERC project DISINTEGRATION @disintegrationerc.bsky.social · 30/04/2025

… and has resulted in several review pieces about the state of the art on the contestation and politicization of international cooperation broadly defined. 12/20

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ERC project DISINTEGRATION @disintegrationerc.bsky.social · 30/04/2025

Further research has explored elite discourse about the international organizations… 11/20

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ERC project DISINTEGRATION @disintegrationerc.bsky.social · 30/04/2025

3. What shapes governments responses to non-cooperation? The trade-off between maintaining cooperation gains and minimizing contagion risks also responses to referendum-endorsed challenges. Cases in which govs/IOs face a pronounced accommodation dilemma are most difficult to resolve. 10/20

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ERC project DISINTEGRATION @disintegrationerc.bsky.social · 30/04/2025

2. How do voters want governments to respond to unilateral non-cooperative challenges? Overall, voters tend to prefer non-accommodation to accommodation. But the extent of their support for non-accommodation is shaped by contagion concerns and extent of cooperation gains they risk losing. 9/20

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ERC project DISINTEGRATION @disintegrationerc.bsky.social · 30/04/2025

1. Are contagion concerns warranted? Political contagion risks are real, both in public opinion, and in terms of public discourse. We document both encouragement and deterrence effects and show that IO’s responses influence whether encouragement or deterrence dominates. 8/20

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ERC project DISINTEGRATION @disintegrationerc.bsky.social · 30/04/2025

Our research design used a mixed-methods approach, including various public opinion surveys and survey experiments, analyses using text-as-data, and a major qualitative comparative case study. 6/20

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ERC project DISINTEGRATION @disintegrationerc.bsky.social · 30/04/2025

Its core argument revolved around what we call the “accommodation dilemma”: the trade-off between short-term cooperation losses and long-term contagion risks. How states are exposed to these risks shapes their response to the unilateral challenge. 5/20

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ERC project DISINTEGRATION @disintegrationerc.bsky.social · 30/04/2025

DISINTEGRATION conceptualized possible responses to unilateral, non-cooperative challenges by other states as a continuum ranging from fully accommodating the challenger’s demands to acting tough and not accommodating any demands. 4/20

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ERC project DISINTEGRATION @disintegrationerc.bsky.social · 30/04/2025

The DISINTEGRATION project examined public opinion, domestic discourse, and international negotiations in response to unilateral, often voter-endorsed, challenges and engaged in theory-building. 3/20

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ERC project DISINTEGRATION @disintegrationerc.bsky.social · 30/04/2025

Our guiding question: Why, how, and with what consequences does the international community respond to unilateral, non-cooperative behavior by individual states, especially challenges that are based on broad popular support? Such challenges were pressing when we started, and have remained salient.

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ERC project DISINTEGRATION @disintegrationerc.bsky.social · 30/04/2025

Today marks the final day of the DISINTEGRATION project, a project on the mass politics of disintegration generously funded by the @erc.europa.eu . We celebrate with a thread on all we have done and found: 1/20

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ERC project DISINTEGRATION @disintegrationerc.bsky.social · 11/04/2025

What a pleasure to reflect on the learnings, achievements and ways forward from the DISINTEGRATION project with former and current team members and our wonderful advisory board at Kloster Fischingen. Great presentations, a quiz, beer tasting and many ideas for next steps.

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ERC project DISINTEGRATION @disintegrationerc.bsky.social · 01/04/2025

Graph of the month: As the DISINTEGRATION project enters its final month, here is its core theoretical contribution: A framework that predicts that the relative size of cooperation gains at risk and contagion risks shape the extent to which states accommodate non-cooperation by others or not.

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ERC project DISINTEGRATION @disintegrationerc.bsky.social · 12/03/2025

Concluding three inspiring and insightful days of talking research and thinking about EU integration, its boundaries, and integration and disintegration dynamics with a fantastic set of people on Monte Verità.

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ERC project DISINTEGRATION @disintegrationerc.bsky.social · 09/03/2025

Today starts the Workshop "The changing boundaries of European integration", co-organized by the DISINTEGRATION (@stefwalter.bsky.social) and EUROBOR (Frank Schimmelfennig) @erc.europa.eu projects and generously co-sponsored by the CSF. We look forward to three insightful days on Monte Verità!

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ERC project DISINTEGRATION @disintegrationerc.bsky.social · 05/03/2025

***GRAPH OF THE MONTH*** Does media-reported EU policy focus shape legitimacy perceptions? Our new study finds that ideological leanings matter: left-wing voters reward EU focus on regulation & climate, while right-wing voters prefer immigration policies.

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ERC project DISINTEGRATION @disintegrationerc.bsky.social · 05/02/2025

(6/8) At the same time, IOs with higher levels of authority and those with an international parliamentary body are more likely to be discussed. And only a handful of IOs are responsible for the bulk of parliamentary communication on IOs.

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ERC project DISINTEGRATION @disintegrationerc.bsky.social · 05/02/2025

(5/8) Turning to the salience of IOs, we show that overall, there is no overall trend to more discussion of IOs over time - though individual peaks of salience for certain IOs can be very high,

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ERC project DISINTEGRATION @disintegrationerc.bsky.social · 05/02/2025

(4/8) We demonstrate how IOParlspeech can be used in two analyses. First, using sentiment analysis we show that opposition parties as well as parties from the radical left and radical right use significantly more negative language when discussing IOs.

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ERC project DISINTEGRATION @disintegrationerc.bsky.social · 05/02/2025

(3/8) The dataset is available for download here: doi.org/10.7910/DVN/...

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ERC project DISINTEGRATION @disintegrationerc.bsky.social · 05/02/2025

(2/8) IOParlspeech contains the statement in which an IO was mentioned, its sentiment, information about the speaker and the IO, as well as additional information that allows for a versatile use.

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ERC project DISINTEGRATION @disintegrationerc.bsky.social · 31/01/2025

(1/2) *** Graph of the Month *** Whilst IOs have become politicised in domestic politics, our analysis of parliamentary debates as part of the DISINTEGRATION project shows there is huge variation across IOs.

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ERC project DISINTEGRATION @disintegrationerc.bsky.social · 20/12/2024

2024 has been another exciting year for the DISINTEGRATION project, with two workshops, several publications, much work in progress and most importantly, a great team. Before we'll move into DISINTEGRATION's grand finale, we wish you all happy and relaxed holidays and all the best for 2025!

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ERC project DISINTEGRATION @disintegrationerc.bsky.social · 12/12/2024

Successful first day for the workshop on "How States and International Organizations Respond to Non-Cooperation" organized jointly by @lisadellmuth.bsky.social and @stefwalter.bsky.social. A great set of papers and constructive general discussions about non-cooperation and the accommodation dilemma.

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ERC project DISINTEGRATION @disintegrationerc.bsky.social · 02/12/2024

Great thread by @catherinedevries.bsky.social about the implications of the rise of euroskeptic parties for EU reform. Shift in euroskeptic rhetoric from exit to reform is also evident in some of @disintegrationerc.bsky.social's work, e.g. in this piece by Marco Martini & @stefwalter.bsky.social.

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ERC project DISINTEGRATION @disintegrationerc.bsky.social · 02/12/2024

"Do external crises unite or divide international organizations? Evidence from 1,443 UNSC resolutions (1995-2018) suggests external crises, like humanitarian disasters, civil conflicts, floods, and terrorist attacks, divide rather than unite the Security Council. Graph by Johannes Scherzinger #UNSC

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ERC project DISINTEGRATION @disintegrationerc.bsky.social · 11/11/2024

*** Graph of the Month *** How are IOs discussed in parliament? In a forthcoming article, Tom Hunter and @stefwalter.bsky.social introduce IOParlspeech, a dataset of over 600,000 statements on IOs in parliamentary debates in six countries, 1990-2018. The dataset is available here: twtr.to/rQn9o

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ERC project DISINTEGRATION @disintegrationerc.bsky.social · 28/03/2024

Graph of the month: Analyzing 167 arguments made in 25 direct democratic voting campaigns on international issues in Switzerland, @giorgiomalet.bsky.social and @stefwalter.bsky.social show that the framing of arguments in favor and against international cooperation differ significantly.

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ERC project DISINTEGRATION @disintegrationerc.bsky.social · 26/03/2024

When Brexit seemed to be a nationalist success, euroskeptic parties in other EU countries became much more aggressive in their rhetoric about the EU. But as the negotiations became difficult, they moderated their tone significantly.

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ERC project DISINTEGRATION @disintegrationerc.bsky.social · 26/03/2024

Now published: How do populist-right parties respond when their preferred policies are implemented abroad? Focusing on Brexit, Marco Martini and @stefwalter.bsky.social show that nationalist parties adjusted their aggressiveness towards the EU in line with the ups and downs of the Brexit process.

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ERC project DISINTEGRATION @disintegrationerc.bsky.social · 26/02/2024

Since the mid-2010s, the number of resolutions in the UNSC that have failed or been vetoed has markedly increased, providing another indicator for growing international dissensus amidst a surge of global crises. Data & Visualization by Johannes Scherzinger. #UnitedNations

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ERC project DISINTEGRATION @disintegrationerc.bsky.social · 25/01/2024

🥁Exciting Update! 📣 The DISINTEGRATION 5-wave panel survey on 🇨🇭Swiss public opinion is now out, revealing key shifts in attitudes. Dive into our data to explore how attitudes on Switzerland’s relations with 🇪🇺Europe and the 🌍World have evolved. Access it here: doi.org/10.48573/enm...

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ERC project DISINTEGRATION @disintegrationerc.bsky.social · 01/12/2023

Two points stand out: 1) Compared to leaders in Western Europe, CEE leaders are more likely to blame the EU, but the dominant rhetorical strategy is still to claim credit 2) Between 2011 and 2018, we observe an increase in the share of statements explicitly blaming the EU.

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