About the Book
This groundbreaking new textbook offers extensive coverage of EU External Action studies, from its major concepts to the key theories in the field. Over the past decades, the European Union has progressively developed into a significant global actor in an increasing number of policy fields. This long-awaited volume looks into different ways of conceptualizing the EU as a global actor, the processes and impact of EU external action, explanations offered by IR and integration theories, the discursive, normative, practice and gender ‘turns’, and the ‘decentring agenda’ for EU external action. The book offers a reader-friendly guidance on these various ways in which to study the EU as a global actor: each chapter introduces one concept, approach or theory and illustrates its application by a case study of EU external action. In drawing the different perspectives together, the book underscores that ‘EU External Action Studies’ is becoming an academic speciality in its own right.
Written by leading experts, the volume will make essential reading for students, scholars and practitioners of EU external action.
EU External Action Studies nowadays attract attention from scholars and students in International Relations (IR), Foreign Policy Analysis and (interdisciplinary) EU Studies, as well as from practitioners.
Table of Contents:
Introduction
1. The history of European Union external action and its study; Sieglinde Gstöhl and Simon Schunz
Part I – Conceptualizing the EU as a global actor
2. Actorness and the study of the EU’s external action; Edith Drieskens
3. Role theory and the study of leadership in EU external action; Lisbeth Aggestam
4. The European Union as ‘Market Power Europe’; Chad Damro
5. Normative Power Approach to European Union external action; Ian Manners
Part II – Analysing processes and impact of EU external action
6. Conceptualizing coherence in EU external action; Clara Portela
7. The EU in international negotiations: three-level game and principal-agent approaches; Sieglinde Gstöhl
8. EU external governance and Europeanization; Frank Schimmelfennig
9. Analysing the effectiveness of European Union external action; Simon Schunz
Part III – Explaining EU external action with IR and integration theories
10. EU external action from a realist perspective; Adrian Hyde-Price
11.Theorizing EU external action: a neo-functionalist perspective; Arne Niemann and Julian Bergmann.
12. A liberal intergovernmentalist approach to EU external action; Andrew Moravcsik and Cassandra Emmons
13. Constructivism and the role of the ‘Other’ in EU external action; Bahar Rumelili
Part IV – Turns in the social sciences and their repercussions for the study of EU external action
14. Discourse analytical approaches and the study of EU external action; Caterina Carta
15. Analysing EU external action through the lens of global justice theory; Helene Sjursen and Joachim Vigrestad
16. The ‘practice turn’ in EU external action studies; Federica Bicchi
17. Gendering EU external action: feminist insights; Roberta Guerrina
Part V – Decentring EU external action: overcoming EU-centrism with outside perspectives
18. Theorizing external perceptions of the EU; Natalia Chaban and Ole Elgström
19. The decentring agenda: a post-colonial approach to EU external action; Nora Fisher-Onar and Kalypso Nicolaïdis
20. Decentring European Foreign Policy Analysis; Stephan Keukeleire and Sharon Lecocq
Conclusion: European Union External Action Studies – the way forward; Sieglinde Gstöhl and Simon Schunz.
About the Author :
Sieglinde Gstöhl is Director of the Department of EU International Relations and Diplomacy Studies at the College of Europe in Bruges, where she has been Professor since 2005. Previous appointments include Humboldt University Berlin and the Liechtenstein Institute. Her research interests include EU external action, especially EU trade policy, neighbourhood relations and external representation. Among her recent books are The Proliferation of Privileged Partnerships between the European Union and its Neighbours (ed. with D. Phinnemore, 2019); The Trade Policy of the European Union (with D. De Bièvre, 2018); and Theorizing the European Neighbourhood Policy (ed. with S. Schunz, 2017).
Simon Schunz is Professor in the Department of EU International Relations and Diplomacy Studies at the College of Europe, Associate Research Fellow at UNU-CRIS in Bruges and visiting lecturer at the University of Leuven (KU Leuven). His research interests include EU external action with a focus on foreign policy implementation and effects, especially concerning EU external environmental, cultural and science policies, and the EU’s relations with major powers. His recent publications include The Evolving Relationship between China, the EU and the USA: A New Global Order? (ed. with J. Men and D. Freeman, 2020) and The European Union’s Evolving External Engagement: Towards New Sectoral Diplomacies? (ed. with C. Damro and S. Gstöhl, 2018).
Sieglinde Gstöhl is Director of the Department of EU International Relations and Diplomacy Studies at the College of Europe in Bruges, where she has been Professor since 2005. Previous appointments include Humboldt University Berlin and the Liechtenstein Institute. Her research interests include EU external action, especially EU trade policy, neighbourhood relations and external representation. Among her recent books are The Proliferation of Privileged Partnerships between the European Union and its Neighbours (ed. with D. Phinnemore, 2019); The Trade Policy of the European Union (with D. De Bièvre, 2018); and Theorizing the European Neighbourhood Policy (ed. with S. Schunz, 2017).
Simon Schunz is Professor in the Department of EU International Relations and Diplomacy Studies at the College of Europe, Associate Research Fellow at UNU-CRIS in Bruges and visiting lecturer at the University of Leuven (KU Leuven). His research interests include EU external action with a focus on foreign policy implementation and effects, especially concerning EU external environmental, cultural and science policies, and the EU’s relations with major powers. His recent publications include The Evolving Relationship between China, the EU and the USA: A New Global Order? (ed. with J. Men and D. Freeman, 2020) and The European Union’s Evolving External Engagement: Towards New Sectoral Diplomacies? (ed. with C. Damro and S. Gstöhl, 2018).
Review :
From a narrative of peace on the continent after two world wars to one of the prosperity generated by the single market, the rationale for the European Union today is an exquisitely global one. From trade, energy and climate, to security, defence and the digital domain, Europe strives for autonomy in a world which is ever more complex, connected and contested. Providing indispensable theoretical and empirical lenses to make sense of this journey, this edited volume by Sieglinde Gstöhl and Simon Schunz is a must-read for all students and practitioners of European foreign policy.
Gstöhl and Schunz have assembled a fabulous group of contributors to assess, consolidate and take forward the study of European Union external action. They illustrate the richness of new conceptualisations and theorising about EU external action, and argue for a more systematic combination of various approaches, as well as the exportation of these concepts and approaches to the wider disciplines of International Relations and EU Studies. Essential reading for students and scholars alike.
Offering a profound and comprehensive overview of conceptual and theoretical approaches, and written by key experts in the field, this volume will be a major reference point for students and scholars interested in the European Union’s external action. The book covers not only traditional concepts like actorness and coherence, and familiar theories like neofunctionalism and external governance, but it also engages with innovative perspectives such as the practice turn, global justice, gendering and decentring approaches.
This book offers a much-needed update of the study of EU’s international actorness, covering the topic from multiple angles and through a diverse range of concepts and theories. It is written by a truly stellar group of authors, which gives each chapter a depth and relevance unusual for its kind. This certainly is a volume of great relevance for all of those interested in knowing more about the EU’s role in the world and I would definitely recommend it.
A must-have for every university library and a must read for everyone interested in the global actorness of the European Union. A dedicated academic and research team has contributed to this comprehensive and unique volume, merging traditional and alternative views on the European Union as a foreign affairs actor. In particular, Part V introduces readers to the decentring of the European Union’s external action, by applying outside perspectives.
More than fifty years after the inception of the European Political Cooperation, this book delimits the breadth and depth of the growing relevance of External Action of the European Union. Designed as textbook, it will certainly benefit students, academics and practitioners alike – and all those dealing with or interested in the EU’s external action. The book traces the historical process, investigates concept-building, theory-formation and eventually sketches out policy implications of the EU with regards to the outside world. In its chapters, highly renowned scholars and experts meticulously and critically assess a field which is of central relevance for the furthering of the European project. The book convincingly situates the External Action of the EU as a nascent field of interest at the interface of International Politics, Foreign Policy Analysis and European Studies. It is a trailblazer!
This volume provides a comprehensive stocktaking of the state of the art in research on EU external action, within a well-structured framework and with contributions from many of the leading scholars in the field. It will be of great use to students looking for a sophisticated primer on individual areas of theory with appropriate illustrative case studies. It will also be valuable to scholars working within the area of EU external action, since it sets the parameters for an emerging area of research which is both more extensive and more relevant than narrower studies of ‘European foreign policy’ or ‘external relations’. Altogether an impressive achievement.
This comprehensive and accessible handbook with contributions from key scholars in the field gives an excellent introduction to the central concepts and theories that have contributed to our understanding of EU external action. The systematic use of case studies is very helpful in showing how different theories and concepts can support our grasp of the Union’s role in the world.
