Ortak karar arayışı: Kırım'dan Doğu Akdeniz'e Avrupa Birliği'nin ortak güvenlik ve dış politikası

This thesis seeks to analyse member states' behaviour and to explain the different German, French, and British policies in the foreign policy formulation during the Crimea and the Eastern Mediterranean crises. Drawing on rationalist and constructivist frameworks, it discerns how the Big Three's foreign policy preferences affected the EU's response. The Big Three's convergence of strategies is particularly vital to pursue a collective response within the EU due to other member states keen to follow them. By applying the Most Similar System Design, this study aims to elucidate the divergence and convergence among the major European powers – namely France, Germany and the United Kingdom. The policy formation of the Big Three has analysed via three main independent variables based on European integration theories; neofunctionalism, liberal intergovernmentalism and social constructivism. The EU's ability to take a joint decision has considered a dependent variable. The initial failure of the EU to generate a collective response in the Crimea and the Eastern Mediterranean crises represented the latest division within the EU due to the member states' tendency to prioritize their self-interest. By adducing official declarations of the EU, discourses of the head of states or governments, foreign ministers, and government representatives, it concludes that collective decision is anchored in the convergence of interests and cost-benefit analysis of the Big Three.