The emergence of a common security and foreign policy has been one of the most contentious issues accompanying the integration of the European Union. In this book, Michael Smith examines the specific ways foreign policy cooperation has been institutionalized in the EU, the way institutional development affects cooperative outcomes in foreign policy, and how those outcomes lead to new institutional reforms. Smith explains the evolution and performance of the institutional procedures of the EU using a unique analytical framework, supported by extensive empirical evidence drawn from interviews, case studies, official documents and secondary sources. His perceptive and well-informed analysis covers the entire history of EU foreign policy cooperation, from its origins in the late 1960s up to the start of the 2003 constitutional convention. Demonstrating the importance and extent of EU foreign/security policy, the book will be of interest to scholars, researchers and policy-makers.

This collected volume of essays focuses on two complementary themes: firstly, the theoretical approaches to the study of European Political Cooperation; and secondly, the empirical analysis of EPC activity. The volume does not argue one particular approach to the study of EPC, but rather presents competing, and often conflicting, theoretical perspectives. At the empirical level, a future research agenda is suggested and it is argued that EPC research should become comparative in nature.

European Political Co-operation (EPC) is the process by which Member States of the European Community co-ordinate their foreign policies. This book sets out to describe the development of EPC and to trace the influences which have made it what it is today. The arguments about transfer of sovereignty in foreign policy-making, the influence of the United States, the leading role played by France, and the effect on policy of finding organizational solutions in reaction to crises are all examined through a historical account of events over more than thirty years. EPC is the basis from which the European foreign policy of the future will be developed. This is increasingly significant both for the institutional development of the Community and for its impact on world events, yet the procedures and political pressures which go towards shaping EPC are little known and frequently misunderstood. This book will improve understanding of a new form of diplomatic process, of great interest for the future, but which has barely begun.

European Political Cooperation: Towards a Foreign Policy for Western Europe presents the conclusions of a study group on European Political Cooperation (EPC). This book discusses the EPC and management of foreign policy, Luxembourg and Copenhagen reports, and coordination in the European council and council of ministers. The national inputs into EPC, EPC structures in the nine national capitals, problems of East-West relations, and political cooperation and Euro-Arab dialogue are also deliberated. This text likewise covers the Portuguese revolution and its aftermath, special relations with outside states, possible adaptations of the EPC's structure, and division of labor between the EEC and EPC. This publication is suitable for students and researchers intending to acquire knowledge of the foreign policies for Western Europe.

Already an influential actor on the international scene, the European Union continues to debate its foreign policy platform. This collection traces the evolution of an integrated European foreign policy, the actors involved, and recent foreign policy successes and failures. The volume concludes with a discussion of future challenges for - and limitations of - the Common Foreign and Security Policy.

Diplomacy? by Gianni Bonvinci.

Drawing on research from the administrative sciences and using organizational, institutional and decision-making theories, this volume examines the emerging bureaucratic framework of the EU and highlights that analyzing the patterns and dynamics of the EU's administrative capacities is essential to understand how it shapes European public policy.