A conversation about Markus Thiel’s latest book “The European Union’s International Promotion of LGBTI Rights: Promises and Pitfalls”

Organisation: Sophie Jacquot (Université Saint-Louis – Bruxelles)

Chair and mediator: Serena D’Agostino (Vrije Universiteit Brussel)

Discussion: David Paternotte (Université Libre de Bruxelles)

Markus Thiel is Professor in the Department of Politics and International Relations at the Green School of International and Public Affairs at Florida International University, Miami. He also directs FIU’s EU-Jean Monnet Center of Excellence. His research interests are the political sociology of the EU and European Politics more generally, Identity Politics and LGBTI Politics.

Book Description

“This book critically analyzes the European Union’s promotion of LGBTI rights in the international arena. Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Intersex rights are heavily contested across the globe, with over 70 countries criminalizing same-sex relations and at least 10 imposing the death penalty.

The book details how the EU, based on different member state positions, attempts to jointly formulate and implement guidelines for the external promotion of LGBTI rights. It also problematizes the various normative and policy-based Eurocentric prescriptions to further these rights. Drawing on an international political sociology framework infused with queer theoretical thought, the author investigates the apparent normative tensions emerging from Europe’s promotion of LGBTI rights as liberal human rights and the ensuing pushback by culturally and politically conservative states. He examines the compatibility of EU institutional and member states’ conceptions of LGBTI rights and the more general question of the EU’s normative agenda-setting power on the world stage. He then explores the external policy areas in which LGBTI rights promotion is formulated and diffused – namely in development and foreign aid, in enlargement and neighbourhood policies, and in other international organizations. In conclusion, the author suggests viewing the contention surrounding LGBTI rights within broader governance contexts, and thus reimagining rights promotion in a more holistic manner.

This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of LGBTI and Human Rights, European Politics, and International Relations.”