Understanding the European Union's External Relations [Paperback]

The European Union is one of the world's biggest economies. However, its role as an international actor is ambiguous and it's not always able to transform its political power into effective external policies. The development of an 'assertive' European Union challenges the image of an internal project aimed at economic integration and international relations theories based on unitary state actors. This book systematically links the EU's external relations to existing political theories, showing how existing theories need to be modified in order to deal with specific characteristics of the EU as an international actor.Part I - The development of the EU's external role: between co-operation and fragmentation
Part II - Internal decision making on external policies: the challenges of multiple levels and multiple pillars
Part III - Promoting European norms, values and ideas - the EU as an exporter of models
Part IV - ConclusionMich?le Knodtis a postdoctoral researcher at the Utrecht School of Governance , University of Utrecht, The Netherlands.

Sebastiaan Princenis working as a researcher at the Netherlands Economic Institute (NEI) in Rotterdam.