Making EU Foreign Policy - National Preferences, European Norms and Common Policies

As the European Union seeks to become a major player in world affairs, sceptics question the EU's ability to overcome differences in the outlooks and policy preferences of its member states. How then, and under what conditions, can the EU agree on strong common foreign policies that rise above the lowest common denominator? This book provides a novel theoretical explanation and fourteen detailed case studies of how EU member states often reach agreement by pursuing their national interests in a manner which takes into account the values and commitments they have already articulated together. The case studies include diplomatic and security issues, enlargement, trade, development and environmental protection. The book concludes with four commentaries on the project's implications for future research on EU foreign policy. Contributors include noted scholars of EU governance, foreign policy and international relations from across Europe and the US.

The Challenge of Making EU Foreign Policy; D.C.Thomas Explaining EU Foreign Policy: Normative Institutionalism and Alternative Approaches; D.C.Thomas CASE STUDIES EU Policy on Ukraine during and since the Orange Revolution: 'A door neither closed nor open'; R.Youngs EU Policy on the International Criminal Court: Institutional Contexts and Policy Compromises; D.C.Thomas EU Policy on the Iraq War and its Aftermath: The Collapse and Revival of Consensus-Based Foreign Policy; J.Lewis EU Decision-making on Operation Artemis: Consensus Building in CSDP; S.Duke EU Membership Negotiations with Turkey: Entrapped Again; F.Schimmelfennig EU Policy on Economic Partnership Agreements: Trade… and Aid?; O.Elgström EU Policy on Global Climate Change: The Negotiation of Burden-Sharing; J.Vogler CONCLUSIONS Normative Institutionalism and EU Foreign Policy in Comparative Perspective; F.Schimmelfennig & D.C.Thomas Norms and All That: Progress in EU Foreign Policy Research; T.Risse Interests, Power and the EU's Role in International Security: A Skeptical Response to Normative Institutionalism; A.Menon Norms, Institutions and EU Foreign Policy: Advancing the Research Programme; M.E.Smith