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.

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.

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.

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.

In The Ideas and Practices of the European Union’s Structural Antidiplomacy, Steffen Bay Rasmussen offers a comprehensive analysis of EU diplomacy that goes beyond the functioning of the European External Action Service and discusses the sui generis nature of the EU as a diplomatic actor, the forms of bilateral and multilateral representation as well as the actor identity, founding ideas and meta-practices of EU diplomacy. The book employs a novel theoretical approach that distinguishes the social structures of diplomacy from the practices and meta-practices of diplomacy. Comparing EU diplomacy to the two theoretically constructed ideal types of Westphalian diplomacy and utopian antidiplomacy, Steffen Bay Rasmussen concludes that the EU’s international agency constitutes a new form of diplomacy called structural antidiplomacy.

The European Union is a key player in international economic relations, but its exact role and how it goes about making decisions and negotiating is often poorly understood within and especially outside the EU. When does the EU play a proactive role and when does it follow? When is the EU a distinct actor and when is it just one level in a multi- level process of negotiation in which the member states are the main actors? Does the EU possess normative power in external economic relations? Does the EU have the capability and willingness to use its still significant economic power? European Union Economic Diplomacy provides the first comprehensive analysis of the factors that determine the role of the EU in economic diplomacy. In an up-to-date treatment that includes consideration of the impact of the Treaty of Lisbon, it contains a comprehensive explanation of decision making and negotiating processes in the core areas of trade, financial market regulation, environmental diplomacy and development co-operation. The book is intended for those interested in EU policy making, but also those who simply need to understand how the EU functions in the field of economic diplomacy.

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.