European Union foreign policy
from effectiveness to functionality
- ISBN: 9781137517227
- Editorial: Palgrave MacMillan
- Fecha de la edición: 2015
- Lugar de la edición: Basingstoke. Reino Unido
- Encuadernación: Rústica
- Medidas: 21 cm
- Nº Pág.: 169
- Idiomas: Inglés
This book aims to change the way we think about the European Union's foreign policy. From the crisis in the Ukraine to the civil wars in Iraq and Syria, discussions of the EU's foreign policy tend to focus around its effectiveness. This book argues that effectiveness is the wrong standard by which to assess this policy area. To do so is simply to repeat cliches about the EU 'punching below its weight' or lacking coherence. This book proposes an alternative framework that investigates the internal functions that shape EU foreign policymaking. These include the management of institutional rivalries within the EU and the task of building a European identity. Understood in this way, the question of whether EU foreign policy 'works' is replaced with the question of 'what is it for?' and 'what functions does it serve?'