Focus on the ideational dimensions of the EU's international presence has unduly diverted attention away from the persistence of power politics instrumentalism. De spite general recognition that these elements co-exist, analysis of EU external policies can benefit from a more precise exploration of how strategic calculation invests a broadly normative agenda with notable characteristics. The article demonstrates this in relation to the promotion of human rights. This sheds light on the way in which security concerns and normative values inform each other, and cautions against neglect of the strategic specificities to identity-representation dynamics. Copyright Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2004.

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This book assesses European Union (EU) policies aimed at encouraging democratization in East Asia and the North African and Middle Eastern states within the Euro–Mediterranean partnership—these two regions being the source of some of the strongest conceptual challenges to ‘Western’ liberal democracy since the end of the cold war. The book addresses theoretical debates over the international dimensions of democratization and the EU's characteristics as an international actor, including in relation to the development of a Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP). The factors both driving and inhibiting European democracy promotion policies are explored. The book outlines the EU's distinctive bottom‐up philosophy, aimed at constructing the socio–economic and ideational foundations for political liberalization, but argues that the EU has, in practice, failed to develop a fully comprehensive and coherent democracy promotion strategy.

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