EU foreign policy once existed in the form of the European Political Cooperation with only a limited political leverage and symbolic institutional underpinnings. In recent years rapid changes have occurred, including an expanding institutional apparatus, increased responsibility and growing demand for action. This book examines new approaches to the EU’s foreign policy that address its rapidly changing character, presenting the newest theoretical perspectives and dealing with novel empirical developments. Rather than simply considering structural variations and changes in the agency of the EU, it explores the new complexity in EU foreign policy. The authors offer new theoretical perspectives and new empirical studies dealing, among others, with issues such as: Power delegation to the Commission. EU diplomacy. Parliamentarisation and constitutionalisation. Committees’ involvement in foreign policy process. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of European politics, European foreign policy and European integration.

During the last two decades the study of European foreign policy has experienced remarkable growth, presumably reflecting a more significant international role of the European Union. The Union has significantly expanded its policy portfolio and though empty symbolic politics still exists, the Union’s international relations have become more substantial and its foreign policy more focused. European foreign policy has become a dynamic policy area, being adapted to changing challenges and environments, such as the Arab Spring, new emerging economies/powers; the crisis of multilateralism and much more. The SAGE Handbook of European Foreign Policy, Two-Volume set, is a major reference work for Foreign Policy Programmes around the world. The Handbook is designed to be accessible to graduate and postgraduate students in a wide variety of disciplines across the humanities and social sciences. Both volumes are structured to address areas of critical concern to scholars at the cutting edge of all major dimensions of foreign policy. The volumes are composed of original chapters written specifically to the following themes: · Research traditions and historical experience · Theoretical perspectives · EU actors · State actors · Societal actors · The politics of European foreign policy · Bilateral relations · Relations with multilateral institutions · Individual policies · Transnational challenges The Handbook will be an essential reference for both advanced students and scholars.

Adopting a broad conceptualization of foreign and security policy, the book examines the role of the High Representative as chair of the Foreign Affairs Council and in her/his capacity as Vice President of the European Commission to assess different patterns of integrated efforts in EU foreign and security policies. In this way, it presents a new perspective from which institutional practices in this specific area can be examined. This contribution is particularly valuable for scholars and students of EU foreign and security policy; of external relations of the EU; of international relations more in general; and of EU integration and politics. At the same time, the book contributes to the empirical understanding of two EU policies that have recently been at the centre of the debate among scholars, policy analysts and practitioners, namely the EU enlargement towards the Western Balkans and the EU Neighborhood Policy and Eastern Partnership.

Despite growing scholarly interest in the EU’s flagship policy towards its Eastern and Southern neighbours, serious attempts at theory-building on the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) have been largely absent from the academic debate. This book aims at contributing to fill this research gap in a three-fold manner: first and foremost it aims at theorizing the ENP as such, explaining the origins, development and effectiveness of this policy. Building on this effort, it also pursues the broader objective of addressing certain shortcomings in EU external relations theory, and even beyond, in International Relations theory. Finally, it aspires to provide new insights for European policy-makers. It is one of the first volumes to provide different theoretical perspectives on the ENP by revisiting and building bridges between mainstream and critical theories, stimulating academic and policy debates and thus setting a novel, less EU-centric research agenda. This text will be of key interest to scholars, students and practitioners in EU external relations, EU foreign policy, the European Neighbourhood Policy, and more broadly in European Union Politics and International Relations.

EU foreign and defence policy is largely formulated in the working parties and committees of the Council of the EU and the vast majority of decisions in this field are made by the national diplomats working in the around 35 groups of the CFSP/CSDP. Although the importance of these committees and their participants has been increasingly recognised, we still know relatively little about them. Using an original database of 138 questionnaires and 37 interviews, this book addresses this lack of knowledge, studying what these committees do and how they negotiate and resolve issues. It explores three key areas: the formulation of the national position; the identity of CFSP/CSDP policy-makers; negotiation practices and outputs. In doing so, it provides an innovative observation point from which EU foreign policy can be analysed. This book will be of key interest to scholars and students of EU foreign and defence policy, external relations of the EU, European integration and politics, diplomacy and more broadly international relations.

A broad ranging introduction to European foreign policy looking at the extent to which a concerted approach is emerging at EU level, the extent of Europeanization of National Foreign Policy and the theoretical issues posed for theories of foreign policy and international relations more generally.

Shortly after the overwhelming victory of Hamas in the 2006 parliamentary and municipal elections, civil war broke out in the Gaza Strip between members of the two factions, Hamas and Fatah. The EU, along with the US, UN and Russia, not only gave its support to Fatah against Hamas, but also imposed a tough siege on the Hamas government in an attempt to force it to accept the Quartet’s political conditions, described by Hamas leaders as unfair and impossible. Many observers are convinced that the EU’s behaviour in this matter has been unreasonable and has conflicted with the EU’s own democratic beliefs and values. This book sheds light on the EU’s policies in Palestine mainly from 2003- 2013, and provides a thorough examination of the inconsistencies and paradoxes in the EU discourse towards Hamas, and the determinants underlying such contradictions. It explores the reasons behind the EU labelling the Hamas a terrorist organization and discusses why the EU has boycotted its democratically elected body since 2006. Significantly, the book looks at whether the EU jeopardized its reputation and contravened its core normative values and objectives (democracy promotion, human rights, the rule of law and fundamental freedoms) by such a categorisation of Hamas. Exploring the EU’s policy towards Hamas is vital for understanding how the relationship between the EU and the rest of the Islamists in the Middle East is perceived, as it enables both sides to have a cognitive basis upon which to construct better relations. This book, based upon a vast spread of primary EU documents and interviews, will therefore be a valuable resource for those studying the Arab Israeli conflict, Political Islamic movements, the Middle East Peace Process, and anyone with an interest in European Union Foreign Policy.

This book provides an original, rigorous and theoretically-grounded investigation into varying EU efforts to advance intercultural dialogue (ICD) in the framework of its foreign policy towards the Mediterranean during the period 1990-2014. From the end of the Cold War, the EU has increasingly invested in both rhetoric and resources on ICD promotion. In spite of this commitment, the EU has never offered a clear and permanent understanding of what this concept entails and has been actually aimed at. By adopting a FPA standpoint and approaching ICD as one of the foreign policy instruments developed by the EU to address the relations with its Mediterranean partners, this book exposes the causes and the modalities of the contradictory development of this relevant and long standing element of EU foreign policy. De Perini investigates change and continuity in the promotion of this tool, and provides in-depth knowledge of what ICD has actually meant for the EU: from the development and launch of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership or Barcelona Process, to the revision of the European Neighbourhood Policy following the Arab uprisings. The book shows that the EU’s advancement of ICD in its foreign policy has gone through three distinct phases: ‘emergence’ (1990-2001), ‘consolidation’ (2001-2010) and ‘professionalisation’ (2010-2014). Empirically the book provides the first comprehensive and integrative analysis of all aspects of EU efforts to promote ICD. The book exposes a series of trends, limits and contradictions of EU foreign policy which are increasingly relevant today. In particular, it shows that over the last twenty-five years, the EU has addressed a set of persistent challenges characterising its relations with Mediterranean countries and people, namely challenges connected to regional conflicts, religious fundamentalisms, xenophobic attitudes towards Arab/Muslim migrants and related social tensions. As these challenges are still major issues in the current EU agenda and in the broader debate about EU foreign policy, this book provides rich and original empirical knowledge to an understanding of how the EU has decided to address these phenomena at different moments of its recent history.

Can a distinct national foreign policy still be identified for small EU member states, and what accounts for the balance between national and EU foreign policy? Henrik Larsen develops an analytical framework for analyzing these questions and offers solutions through an empirical examination of the foreign policy of a small EU member state in the context of EU foreign policy - the case of Denmark. The book looks at seven policy areas: policy towards other EU member states, anti-terrorism, development, the Balkans, Africa, Latin America and trade. On the basis of the empirical study, the implications for the theoretical study of national foreign policy in an EU Context are outlined. It is suggested that we need a new, mixed approach to foreign policy analysis within the EU taking into account the nature of the policy area concerned and national conceptions of actorness.

This book examines how, within foreign policy, perceptions are a reflection of an actor’s conception of status, credibility and legitimacy, within the context of EU–Ukraine relations and the Ukraine crisis.