This ground-breaking volume provides a new perspective on the EU’s foreign policy and offers a reconstruction of EU research that extends beyond narrow-minded concepts of ‘power’ and ‘actorness’. Focusing on two intertwined research questions, it presents a more sustainable base for studying EU foreign policy: What is the EU’s foreign policy quality in terms of ‘actorness’ and ‘power’ compared to other types of actors in international relations and global politics? What factors influence the EU’s foreign policy performance in comparison to states and international organizations? This guiding principle and application of a ‘grounded theory’ or ‘heuristic case study’ approach allows the book to deliver a structured comparative analysis of EU foreign policy, comparing findings across policy fields, different legal foundations and respective policy modes of governance. This book will be of key interest to students and scholars of European Union studies, European Union foreign policy studies, international relations, and security policy studies.

The European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) has evolved into one of the European Union's major foreign policy instruments and received considerable attention. However, other EU neighbourhood policies, and their relevance for the ENP, also require examination. The Arab uprisings, civil wars in Libya and Syria, the continuing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the crisis in Ukraine and Russia's annexation of the Crimean peninsula have all brought the institutional design and tools of the ENP into question and a comparative perspective is crucial to understand EU neighbourhood policies in a wider sense. This timely book puts the ENP into context by exploring the major challenges and key lessons of the EU's other policy frameworks with neighbouring countries. Mapping the EU's bi-lateral and multilateral neighbourhood relations in comparison to the ENP and investigating the major challenges faced, it provides a comprehensive, up-to-date view of the EU's relations with its neighbours. Focusing on current affairs and future challenges, the comparison with the ENP and the lessons to be drawn, generate novel insights into the EU's closest external relations. This book will be of key interest to students and scholars studying European Politics, policies and comparative politics.

Adopting a broad conceptualization of foreign and security policy, the book examines the role of the High Representative as chair of the Foreign Affairs Council and in her/his capacity as Vice President of the European Commission to assess different patterns of integrated efforts in EU foreign and security policies. In this way, it presents a new perspective from which institutional practices in this specific area can be examined. This contribution is particularly valuable for scholars and students of EU foreign and security policy; of external relations of the EU; of international relations more in general; and of EU integration and politics. At the same time, the book contributes to the empirical understanding of two EU policies that have recently been at the centre of the debate among scholars, policy analysts and practitioners, namely the EU enlargement towards the Western Balkans and the EU Neighborhood Policy and Eastern Partnership.

This book presents a ground-breaking comparative study of the bilateral relations of all 27 EU member states with Russia and an assessment of their impact on the EU’s efforts to conduct a coherent and effective policy towards its most important neighbour. While there has been a lot of research on European foreign policy, there has been much less on the role that national foreign policies play in it. Based on a common analytical framework, this book offers a detailed analysis of ‘national perspectives on Russia’ and how they interact with and affect policymaking at the EU-level. The authors provide deep insights into the relationship between individual states and Russia looking at a range of policy areas: economics, trade, energy, security, culture and education. They are not only interested in examining policy failure but also probing the possibilities of seeing national foreign policies and the bilateralism with third parties that they often entail as a potentially positive resource for the European Union. As Russia is an example of a particularly hard case for EU foreign policy, this book yields important insights concerning the possibilities as well as limits of developing a common EU policy in the future. It will be of interest to students and scholars of European politics, EU Studies, Russian politics, foreign policy studies and international politics.

Foreign Policies of EU Member States provides a clear and current overview of the motivations and outcomes of EU Member States regarding their foreign policy-making within and beyond the EU. It provides an in-depth analysis of intra-EU policy-making and sheds light, in an innovative and understandable way, on the lesser-known aspects of the inter-EU and extra-EU foreign policies of the twenty-eight Member States. The text has an innovative method of thematic organisation in which case study state profiles emerge via dominant foreign policy themes. The text examines the three main policy challenges currently faced by the twenty-eight Member States: First, EU Member States must cooperate within the mechanisms of the EU, including the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP). Second, EU Member States continue to construct their own inter-EU foreign policies. Third, the sovereign prerogative exercised by all EU Member States is to construct their own foreign policies on everything from trade and defence with the rest of the world. This combination of clarity, thematic structure and empirical case studies make this an ideal textbook for all upper-level students of European foreign policy, comparative European politics and European studies.

Widely regarded as the most comprehensive comparative foreign policy text, Foreign Policy in Comparative Perspective has been completely updated in this much-anticipated second edition. Exploring the foreign policies of thirteen nations—both major and emerging players, and representing all regions of the world—chapter authors link the study of international relations to domestic politics, while treating each nation according to individual histories and contemporary dilemmas. The book's accessible theoretical framework is designed to enable comparative analysis, helping students discern patterns to understand why a state acts as it does in foreign affairs.

Early School Leaving in the European Union provides an analysis of early school leaving (ESL) in nine European Union countries, with a particular focus on young people who were previously enrolled in educational institutions inside and outside mainstream secondary education. The comparative approach employed by this volume adds to the existing body of knowledge on ESL and develops an understanding of how young people navigate through different educational systems. Contributors acknowledge the importance of reconstructing educational trajectories from the perspective of the individuals involved and, as a result, the book includes data collected during in-depth interviews, surveys, and insights from educational professionals, policymakers and representatives from civil society organisations. Adopting a classic tripartite approach, which acknowledges the complex nature of ESL, the book addresses individual, institutional and systemic factors. It identifies and analyses the prevention, intervention and compensation measures that can succeed in supporting young people’s attainment, and demonstrates how these can be used to reduce ESL. This unique book will be highly relevant for academics, researchers and postgraduate students, as well as educational practitioners. Drawing on the insights provided by the authors, the book formulates policy recommendations that should also be of interest for policymakers in European countries and beyond.