Role Spillover: Roles’ Impacts across Contexts and the EU’s Struggle for Arctic Council Observer Status
Journal: Foreign Policy Analysis
Year: 2023

Abstract The way an international actor acts in one context impacts its ability to play a role in other contexts. Expanding on role theoretical insights, I develop a concept of role spillover to account for the ways in which roles interact across contexts. Acting in accordance with expectations in one context might not benefit an actor in another context; it can either support or impede an actor’s ability to play its preferred role elsewhere. I demonstrate this through a case study of the Europe