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EU foreign policy

With the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty in 2009 and its subsequent implementation, the European Union has gradually assembled the constituent elements of a sui generis 'foreign policy', bringing together various competencies, instruments and resources that were hitherto spread across different institutions and bodies. Although the process is still on-going and progress is, in parts, uneven, certain traits of a more coherent common approach to foreign policy-making are now evident. In the Balkans, the Horn of Africa (both offshore and onshore), the Sahel, or the Middle East, joint and combined forms of external action - including diplomacy, enlargement, CSDP and development activities - are now producing more effective and lasting results.

Analysing the specific actors, instruments, policies, and strategies at the disposal of the Union and assessing their scope and outreach is also a way to illustrate what the EU does in the world - something which is not always known or appreciated by those who directly benefit from its external action, or indeed by European citizens at large. Monitoring performance, in turn, also contributes to improving it, in a constructive manner and on the basis of factual evidence.

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  • 02November 2005
    Reflections after the No votes: What makes the EU an international actor?
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    This note assesses the impact of the political crisis affecting the EU in the wake of the constitutional referenda, specifically with reference to the image and performance of the Union in the wider international world. The basic assumption is that the viability of CFSP and of EC external relations largely depends on the political cohesion of the EU.

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    26October 2005
    Time for new thinking on Belarus
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    In November 2004, the EU set forth a new framework for policy towards Belarus. The regional context around Belarus has since changed dramatically, with an enlarged EU, a 'revolutionary' Ukraine, a more defensive Russia and more active US. EU policy may be strengthened to reflect and work with these changes.

  • 16October 2005
    What Turkey for what Union?
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    Groucho Marx famously stated that he would never join a club that would accept him as a member. Today, the Turkish leadership might be well advised to take the same approach to the European Union (EU). Membership for the sake of it should not be the objective. Accession will only succeed when the Union is confident enough to welcome Turkey among its members.

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    01October 2005
    US China Policy: Implications for the EU
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    The rapid modernisation of the People's Liberation Army, Beijing's increasingly threatening stance vis-à-vis Taiwan and its demand for energy are the main factors driving America's preoccupation with China. All sectors of opinion in the US criticised the EU's declared intention to lift its embargo on arms exports to China. This policy was misunderstood and its implications exaggerated.

  • 01October 2005
    Halte à la conspiration du silence !
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    Le plus fascinant dans la crise européenne est qu'elle plombe toutes les énergies, y compris la volonté d’en parler. Une sorte de conspiration du silence s'est en effet installée sur l'ensemble des pays européens, à tel point que l'on peut se demander s'il s'est vraiment passé quelque chose ou si la Constitution valait finalement l'importance vitale qu'on lui avait prêtée

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    01October 2005
    La PESC en antidote
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    Alors que la crise européenne s’installe dans la durée, c’est au tour des Etats-Unis de connaître une crise similaire, de gouvernance et de confiance, qui fait de Katrina, selon la très juste formule de Karl Kaiser, un phénomène géopolitique de première ampleur.

  • 26September 2005
    2005 Annual Conference - The Union in question

    For the fourth consecutive year, Javier Solana, High Representative for the CFSP, opened the Institute's Annual Conference, held in Paris on Monday, 26 September.

  • 01September 2005
    La politique de sécurité de l'Allemagne
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    Sous l'effet de l'implosion de l'URSS, d'un côté, et de la mondialisation, de l'autre, le contexte stratégique a complètement changé au cours des 15 dernières années. De nouvelles menaces telles que l'hyper-terrorisme, la prolifération des armes de destruction massive et le crime organisé ont remplacé le danger d'une confrontation militaire massive.

  • 15July 2005
    How the US views the European crisis
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    The failure of the EU constitution in the referendums in France and the Netherlands has met with three types of responses in America: disappointment, satisfaction and ignorance. Most of the Americans who care about European affairs have not welcomed the failure.

  • 08July 2005
    Transatlantic Conference: new Bush - new EU - new issues

    Although the transatlantic relationship has been dogged by differences over the war in Iraq, the embargo on arms exports to China and divergences in policy towards the Middle East, significant efforts to facilitate a rapprochement have now emerged.

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  • 27September 2001
    L’Europe doit repenser l’Union
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    L’énorme cacophonie stratégique qui n’en finit pas d’émerger des ruines du World Trade Center affectera aussi les règles et la dynamique traditionnelles de la construction européenne. Moteurs d’intégration accrue, les attentats du 11 septembre le seront au moins pour trois raisons.

  • 01September 2001
    Enlargement and European security after 11 September
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    What consequences may the terrorist acts of 11 September have for EU enlargement? Will they facilitate it or make it more complicated? And what is likely to be their overall impact on pan-European security?

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    01July 2001
    Developing the 'moral' arguments: Russian rhetorical strategies on security post-Kosovo?
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    This paper analyses how the Russian top leadership’s rhetoric on security and the West evolved during and after NATO’s Operation Allied Force against Serbia in 1999. By grasping the logic inherent in political rhetoric, one can arrive at a better understanding of the messages that a political actor is trying to convey.

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    02May 2001
    From St-Malo to Nice: European defence: core documents
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    In the two years between St-Malo and Nice, the character of the European Union changed. What was previously unthinkable ‘at Fifteen’ became an objective agreed by all member states: the inclusion in the Union’s legitimate competencies of a common security and defence policy, in other words its acquisition of strategic responsibility in post-Cold War crisis management.

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    01May 2001
    A common European export policy for defence and dual-use items?
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    In Europe, arms and dual-use exports raise complex questions. They fall between two policy spheres that are organised in a distinctly contrasting manner. On the one hand, they are an intrinsic part of commercial policy that lies within the exclusive competence of the European Community (EC). On the other hand, they come under the aegis of security and defence policy, a jealously guarded area of responsibility of the EU member states.

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    01May 2001
    Coherence for security policy: debates - cases- assessments
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    This Occasional Paper stems from a series of meetings of an ISS Task Force on ‘The Coherence of CFSP’ held in Paris between October 2000 and April 2001. Task Forces are small groups of experts and officials from member States, international bodies and think tanks that convene periodically to discuss a given topic or policy area. They usually include a ‘core group’ of members and other participants that join in according to the specific focus of each meeting.

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    02April 2001
    The Southern Balkans: perspectives from the region
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    Once again contradictory dynamics are upsetting the fragile balance in the southern Balkans. On one side is the democratisation of Croatia but above all that of Serbia; on the other, attempts by UCK extremists to destabilise Macedonia. Yesterday’s enemy, Serbia, is becoming today’s partner, whereas yesterday’s partner, the UCK, may become a real adversary in the endeavour to maintain stability in Kosovo and the region as a whole.

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    01March 2001
    Realigning Neutrality? - Irish Defence Policy and the EU
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    Daniel Keohane explores the changing context of Irish defence policy in light of the rapid development of the CESDP. He touches on policy considerations germane to all EU member-states with a tradition of neutrality who are having to adjust to a new role in a changing world. Keohane also uses defence policy as a metaphor for the changing internal debate at a time when a strong and polemical discourse is underway about Ireland’s role in the wider world.

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    01November 2000
    The Nordic dimension in the evolving European security structure and the role of Norway
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    During the Cold War, the Nordic countries tried to develop a political identity by being different from the rest of the bipolar European security order. After the end of the Cold War, this particular identity disappeared when the Nordic countries became involved in the great European security discourses, the most important one of which revolved around the concept of co-operative security.

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    01November 2000
    European integration and defence: the ultimate challenge?
    By

    Since St-Malo, three revolutions in European military affairs have been under way: the first concerns Britain, the second the process of European political integration and the third the actual management of security in the post-Cold War world. That is the main thrust of this Chaillot Paper, whose author, Jolyon Howorth is without doubt one of the foremost historians and specialists in matters of European security.

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