This book is the first to comprehensively examine the institutional dynamics that characterize the diplomatic system set up by the European Communities and the European Union – currently the foremost experiment in non-state diplomacy. It analyses European Union Diplomatic Service’s work on foreign policy and external economic relations, both in Brussels and in the Commission’s Delegations across the world.

The creation of the European External Action Service (EEAS), the EU’s new diplomatic body, was accompanied by high expectations for improving the way Europe would deal with foreign policy. However, observers of its first years of operation have come to the opposite conclusion. This book explains why the EEAS, despite being hailed as a milestone in integration in Europe’s foreign policy, has fallen short of the mark. It does so by enlisting American institutionalist approaches to European questions of institutional creation, bureaucratic organisations and change. The book examines the peculiar shape the EEAS’s organisation has taken, what political factors determined that shape and design and how it has operated. Finally, it looks at the autonomous operation of the EEAS from a bureaucratic theory perspective, concluding that this is the best way to understand its course. Including data gathered from elite interviews of politicians and senior officials involved in the institutional process, an assessment of official documentary evidence and a survey of EEAS officials at the organisation’s beginning, it sheds new light on a controversial tool in the EU's foreign policy. This text will be of key interest to scholars and students of European Union foreign policy, public administration, and more broadly to European Union and European politics, as well as to practitioners within those fields.

Over the past five years, the EU has established a new system of diplomacy centred on the European External Action Service (EEAS) and the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. This new system reflects a process of evolution in a changing context, and has been faced by major challenges since its inception. This book examines the diplomatic system of the EU, locating it within the broader study of diplomacy and the European integration project. The volume is structured around the interrelated themes of institutional change and the evolving practices of EU diplomacy. It tracks the development of the EU’s system of diplomacy, with particular reference to the implementation of the Lisbon Treaty, the establishment of the EEAS and the emerging practices of EU strategic and structural diplomacy. Bringing together contributions from leading experts in the field, this book provides an original approach to the development and operation of the EU’s diplomatic system. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of European Union international relations, European Union politics and diplomacy.

Based on extensive empirical work by a cross-European group of researchers, this book assesses the impact of the creation of the European External Action Service (EEAS) on the national foreign policy-making processes and institutions of the EU member states. As such, the contributions cover both the involvement of the national diplomatic and foreign policy actors in shaping the outlook of the EEAS and its mission, as well as the changes (or not) it has produced for those actors of the member states. The analysis draws in theoretical frameworks from Europeanization and socialization, but also from intergovernmental frameworks of policy-making within the European Union. An introduction by the editors outlines the issues and trends examined in the book and establishes the theoretical and methodological framework. Split into 2 sections, Part I: EEAS and national diplomacies as part of global and European structures has contributions by Richard Whitman, Rosa Balfour, Christian Lequesne, Caterina Carta and Simon Duke. Part II: National diplomacies shaping and being shaped by the EEAS is covered by Daniel Fiott, Fabien Terpan, Cornelius Adebahr, Andrea Frontini, Ignacio Molina and Alicia Sorroza, Laura C. Ferreira-Pereira, Alena Vysotskaya G. Vieira and Louise van Schaik, Grzegorz Gromadzki, Mark Rhinard, Jakob Lewander and Sara Norrevik, Sabina Kajnc Lange, Ruby Gropas and George Tzogopoulos, Vit Beneš and Kristi Raik. This book is much needed, especially in an era when the EU is trying to pull its weight in the international sphere (e.g. Syria, Iran, the Arab Spring, Chinese relations and emerging powers) but also at a time when the EU is trying to recalibrate its institutional structure in light of the current financial predicaments and questions on the democratic legitimacy of the European project.

This volume brings together senior practitioners and academic specialists to consider how the EU’s new foreign policy has been evolving and how the various actors are maintaining the holistic approach intended by the draftsmen of the 2009 Lisbon Treaty.

This is an open access title available under the terms of a [CC BY-NC-ND 4.0] License. It is free to read, download and share on Elgaronline.com. This cutting-edge book explores the practices and socialization of the everyday foreign policy making in the European Union (EU), focusing on the individuals who shape and implement the Common Foreign and Security Policy despite a growing dissension among member states.

This collection brings together leading scholars and practitioners to assess the processes, institutions and outcomes of the EU's collective diplomatic engagement in the fields of security, human rights, trade and finance and environmental politics. It analyzes successes and failures in the EU's search for global influence in the post-Lisbon era.

This book questions whether the institutions and practices of the emerging EU diplomatic system conform to established standards of the state-centric diplomatic order; or whether practice is paving the way for innovative, even revolutionary, forms of diplomatic organisation.

"Explores European foreign policy and the degree of European Union success in proposing itself as a valid international actor, drawing from the expertise of scholars and practitioners in many disciplines. Addresses issues past and present, theoretical and practice-oriented, and country- and region-specific"-- Provided by publisher.

A very timely and topical volume concerned with the impact of the Lisbon Treaty on the European Union’s (EU) capacity to further develop a distinctive foreign policy in accordance with the various policy instruments necessary to fulfil its role as a global actor. This edited volume brings together a host of scholars in the fields of European Studies and International Relations whose contributions offer both innovative theoretical perspectives and new empirical insights. Overall, the book emphasizes the question of the EU’s evolving legitimacy and efficiency as a foreign policy and diplomatic actor on the regional and global stage. This shared concern is clearly reflected in the book’s three-pronged structure: Part 1 - the EU a controversial global political actor in an emergent multipolar world with contributions from A.Gamble, M.Telò and J.Howorth; Part 2 - After the Lisbon Treaty: the Common Foreign and Security Policy and the European External Action Service, includes chapters from C.Lequesne, C.Carta and H.Mayer; Part 3 - R.Gillespie, F.Ponjaert, G.Grevi, Z.Chen, H.Nakamura and U.Salma Bava assess the CFSP and the EU’s external relations in action. Foreword by S.E.M P. Vimont. As a result, the book is a useful and relevant contribution to European Union studies and International Relations’ research and teaching. It offers any interested party informed and comprehensive insights into EU foreign policy at a time when it seeks to undertake an increased role in World affairs and this despite economic crisis.