Mapping EU Foreign Policy

Abstract

Early foreign policy co-operation among the member states of the European Community was an oddity. It challenged neo-functionalist orthodoxies by resisting incorporation into the main body of European integration while at the same time its development meant that traditional intergovernmental models of co-operation were ‘no longer applicable in any meaningful way’ (Wessels 1982: 14). Thus, in the infancy of studying an emerging ‘European’ foreign policy, attention was devoted to detailed analyses of the unique decision-making and policy outputs deriving from European political co-operation (EPC) and later the common foreign and security policy (CFSP) of the European Union (EU). This tradition is well reflected in contemporary scholarship focusing upon the development of decision-making and policy and pre-eminently includes Holland (1997), Nuttall (1992) and 164 Journal of European Public Policy Regelsberger et al. (1997). Such studies frequently highlight the gap between what the member states formally aspire to in the realm of EPC CFSP and what decisionmaking capacity they actually agree to within the policy process. What is often missing from such accounts, however, is a broader consideration of the Union as an international actor, incorporating an appreciation of the role of trade and economics in the Union’s international capacity.