Values And Principles In European Union Foreign Policy

This book presents a fresh examination of the values and principles that inform EU foreign policy, exploring the implications of these values and principles on the construction of European Union identity today. The authors show how current debates on European Union foreign policy and on European identity tend to be kept separated, as if the process of identity formation had only an internal dimension or it was not related to the external behaviour of an international actor. Conceiving EU foreign policy in its broadest context as a set of political actions that are regarded by external actors as ‘EU’ actions, the book focuses on both Pillar I and Pillar II policies, involving EU and member state actions and material political actions and less material ones such as speech acts. Adopting a multidisciplinary perspective and drawing on political science, political economy, sociology, environmental science and women’s studies, this book will be of great interest to students and scholars of European studies and politics.

The European Union's foreign policy and its international role are increasingly being contested both globally and at home. At the global level, a growing number of states are now challenging the Western-led liberal order defended by the EU. Large as well as smaller states are vying for more leeway to act out their own communitarian principles on and approaches to sovereignty, security and economic development. At the European level, a similar battle has begun over principles, values and institutions. The most vocal critics have been anti-globalization movements, developmental NGOs, and populist political parties at both extremes of the left-right political spectrum. This book, based on ten case studies, explores some of the most important current challenges to EU foreign policy norms, whether at the global, glocal or intra-EU level. The case studies cover contestation of the EU's fundamental norms, organizing principles and standardized procedures in relation to the abolition of the death penalty, climate, Responsibility to Protect, peacebuilding, natural resource governance, the International Criminal Court, lethal autonomous weapons systems, trade, the security-development nexus and the use of consensus on foreign policy matters in the European Parliament. The book also theorizes the current norm contestation in terms of the extent to, and conditions under which, the EU foreign policy is being put to the test.

This volume sets out explicitly and systematically to bring together the two strands of political science– the study of the EU’s international activities, and IR theory – and thus to make a significant original contribution to a developing literature. It provides both a conceptual and empirical argument, the volume provides an innovative perspective on the analysis of the European Union as an international actor, and on the ways in which EU actions are formed and have impact. The volume deals with a number of topical issues in such areas as human rights, global governance and the roles of international organizations. It offers a research agenda based on rigorous development of the framework for role analysis, and demonstrates the ways in which this agenda might be furthered.

This book critically examines the process of statebuilding by the EU, focusing on its attempts to build Member States in the Western Balkan region. This book analyses the European Union's policies towards, and the impact they have, upon the states of the Western Balkans, and assesses how these affect the nature of EU foreign policy. To this end, it focuses on the tools and mechanisms that the EU employs in its enlargement policy and examines the new instruments of direct intervention (in Bosnia and Kosovo), political coercion (in the case of Croatia and Serbia in relation to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia), and stricter conditionality in the Western Balkan countries. The book discusses the key aim of this special form of statebuilding, which is to establish functional liberal-democratic states in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia in order for them to join the EU and to cope with the responsibilities and pressures of membership in the future. However, the authors argue that while the EU sees itself as an international actor that promotes and protects liberal-democratic values, norms and principles, its experiences in the Western Balkans demonstrate how the EU ́s actions in the region have undermined the basic principles of democratic decision-making (such as the European support for impositions in Bosnia) and international law (Kosovo), and have consequently contributed to new tensions (see police reform in Bosnia, and the tensions between Kosovo and Serbia) and dependencies. This book will be of much interest to students of statebuilding, EU politics, global governance and IR/Security Studies in general.

The European Neighbourhood Policy is a key part of the foreign policy of the European Union (EU), through which the EU works with its southern and eastern neighbours with a view to furthering its interests and achieving the closest possible degree of political association and economic integration. The policy is underpinned by a set of values and principles that the EU seeks to promote. The European Neighbourhood Policy – Values and Principles carries out a legal analysis of the values and principles that form the basis for the European Neighbourhood Policy – respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights (including the rights of minorities), plus the principles of conditionality, differentiation and coherence. This collection explores the instruments that the EU has deployed under the European Neighbourhood Policy to spread its values and to achieve its interests. It assesses to what extent the EU has been (and is) consistent in upholding its values in its relations with neighbouring countries, and examines how these values have been received by these countries. The book looks in particular at the nature of EU-Russia relations, seeking to identify areas of common interest as well as those of actual and potential disagreement.

Scientific Study from the year 2020 in the subject Politics - Topic: European Union, , language: English, abstract: The book treats the role, status and nature of the European Union in the contemporary international relations, with special emphasis on the value corpus and potential of the European Union in relation to other actors on the global political stage. In this context, the operationalization and rationalization of the nature of the European Union, i.e. its postmodern determination and the deeply planted modern core, composed of 27 sovereign member states, is being established. The book also analyzes the institutional and political architecture of the Lisbon Treaty, especially in the area of EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy, as well as the legal implications of this Treaty for the further development and transformation of the EU into a political union. The book also discusses the status and role of the EU in relation to the BRICS grouping and their external and internal value capacity, in the context of the contemporary international liberal order, taking into account the new global deviations, such as the rise of populism and illiberalism in Europe and the world. Immediately after that, the EU’s relations with China are analyzed, taking into account the Chinese ‘project of the century’, embodied in the ‘Belt and Road Initiative’, considered as a process of expansion of Chinese influence in the global context. In the context of the EU’s establishment as an actor in international relations, special attention is paid to the imperial past of its member states, especially since out of 27 EU member states, 10 of them are former colonial empires. Hence, conclusions are drawn about the possibilities for deepening the cooperation between the EU member states with their former colonies (today sovereign states), but this time in the favor of the European Union's global goals and interests. Finally, the book analyzes the EU’s projections on the creation of a new, post-American international context, according to its ‘ideological baggage’ composed of the values of multilateralism, regionalism and institutional creativity, as a ‘community of values’, firmly constituted on the power of law, instead of on the right of force.

This text reviews a variety of approaches to the study of the European Union's foreign policy. Much analysis of EU foreign policy contains implicit theoretical assumptions about the nature of the EU and its member states, their inter-relationships, the international system in which they operate and the nature and direction of European integration. In many instances such assumptions, given that they are not discussed openly, curtail rather than facilitate debate. The purpose of this book is to open up this field of enquiry so that students, observers and analysts of EU foreign policy can review a broad range of tools and theoretical templates from which the development and the trajectory of the EU's foreign policy can be studied.

In a relatively short time, the European Union has become one of the world's most powerful and important bodies. Its critical role in international affairs extends to several different areas: economics; culture; the environment; and, of course, international security and foreign affairs. This important volume explains and evaluates EU foreign policy in all its confusing dimensions. Is there really any such thing as "European Union Foreign Policy"? If so, what is it? What are its goals and priorities, and how effective is it? How do outsiders perceive EU foreign policy, and what are the ramifications of those views? Those are just some of the questions this book tries to answer. In order to draw the most comprehensive picture possible of EU foreign policy, Federiga Bindi and her contributors dissect both "horizontal" and "vertical" issues. Vertical concerns focus on particular geographic regions, such as the EU's foreign policy toward Africa and Asia and its relations with the United States. Horizontal issues explore wider crosscutting themes that help explain the EU's foreign policy choices and operations, such as decisionmaking processes and procedures; European self-identity; and core priorities such as peace, democracy, and human rights. Contents Foreword by Giuliano Amato, former foreign minister and prime minister of Italy Part I. The New Tools of EU Foreign Policy II. US-EU Relations after the Elections III. EU Relations with the Rest of the Americas IV. Africa and Asia V. The EU and Its Neighbors VI. The EU, the Mediterranean, and the Middle East VII. Promoting Values and Models Abroad VIII. Conclusions: Assessing EU Foreign Policy