The European Union as a Diplomatic Actor

Abstract

Please respect intellectual property rightsThis material is copyright and its use is restricted by our standard site license terms and conditions (see http://www.palgraveconnect.com/pc/connect/info/terms_conditions.html).plan to copy, distribute or share in any format including, for the avoidance of doubt, posti websites, you need the express prior permission of Palgrave Macmillan. To request perm please contact rights@palgrave.com.'This volume provides a timely and comprehensive overview of the EU's growing role as a diplomatic actor, covering policies, processes and outcome in key foreign policy fields. It is one of the first attempts to systematically evaluate the build-up of the EU's diplomatic capacity in the post-Lisbon era and is therefore a must-read for all interested in recent changes of EU diplomatic actorness. I find the volume's ambition to link the changing diplomatic role of the EU to the changing nature of modern diplomacy especially interesting.' -Ole Elgström, Professor of Political Science, Lund University, Sweden 'As one of the most complex and constantly evolving international actors on the planet, the EU poses a major challenge for those interested in understanding its global purpose and political capabilities. Different perspectives and conceptual tools are often necessary to complete the picture, and this volume combines both in a wide-ranging treatment of how the EU behaves as a diplomatic actor. It also draws upon insights from both practitioners and scholars to explain the considerable variance across different EU foreign policy domains despite the best efforts of the EU to make itself more coherent.' -Michael E. Smith, Professor and Chair in International Relations, University of Aberdeen, Scotland 'Based on contributions by an excellent international team consisting of both senior and junior academics as well as knowledgeable practitioners, this incisive volume both fills a vacuum and provides the most up to date overview of the growing role of the EU as a diplomatic actor in the post-Lisbon era.' -Walter Carlsnaes, Senior Professor (emeritus), Department of Government, Uppsala University, Sweden 'This volume underlines that the role of the EU within the emerging multipolar and fragmented world is slowly gaining in importance after the Treaty of Lisbon (2009) -despite external obstacles as well as internal deficits of consistency and coherence. The action of the EU as an unprecedented diplomatic actor and of the EEAS are analysed in an accurate and comprehensive way in the main policy fields of trade, human rights, climate change, and finance, with special attention given to the EU's impact within multilateral organizations and regimes. This panel of contributors offers fresh analyses and contributes to enriching the literature on a crucial issue in EU studies and international relations.' Thanks to consecutive rounds of enlargement and the stepwise broadening and deepening of internal integration, the EU now undeniably plays a key role in international politics, law and economics. At...