This collection brings together leading scholars and practitioners to assess the processes, institutions and outcomes of the EU's collective diplomatic engagement in the fields of security, human rights, trade and finance and environmental politics. It analyzes successes and failures in the EU's search for global influence in the post-Lisbon era.

First published in 2002. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

A very timely and topical volume concerned with the impact of the Lisbon Treaty on the European Union’s (EU) capacity to further develop a distinctive foreign policy in accordance with the various policy instruments necessary to fulfil its role as a global actor. This edited volume brings together a host of scholars in the fields of European Studies and International Relations whose contributions offer both innovative theoretical perspectives and new empirical insights. Overall, the book emphasizes the question of the EU’s evolving legitimacy and efficiency as a foreign policy and diplomatic actor on the regional and global stage. This shared concern is clearly reflected in the book’s three-pronged structure: Part 1 - the EU a controversial global political actor in an emergent multipolar world with contributions from A.Gamble, M.Telò and J.Howorth; Part 2 - After the Lisbon Treaty: the Common Foreign and Security Policy and the European External Action Service, includes chapters from C.Lequesne, C.Carta and H.Mayer; Part 3 - R.Gillespie, F.Ponjaert, G.Grevi, Z.Chen, H.Nakamura and U.Salma Bava assess the CFSP and the EU’s external relations in action. Foreword by S.E.M P. Vimont. As a result, the book is a useful and relevant contribution to European Union studies and International Relations’ research and teaching. It offers any interested party informed and comprehensive insights into EU foreign policy at a time when it seeks to undertake an increased role in World affairs and this despite economic crisis.

Is the European Union a unified actor in world politics? The world’s leading economic power is still struggling to find its role in shaping and maintaining global peace, free trade and commerce. How successful is the EU ́s Common Foreign and Security Policy and its institutions really?

In The Ideas and Practices of the European Union’s Structural Antidiplomacy, Steffen Bay Rasmussen offers a comprehensive analysis of the different facets of EU diplomacy, arguing that it constitutes a unique form of international agency called structural antidiplomacy.

This volume brings together senior practitioners and academic specialists to consider how the EU’s new foreign policy has been evolving and how the various actors are maintaining the holistic approach intended by the draftsmen of the 2009 Lisbon Treaty.

This volume looks at the changing goals and instruments of European Union diplomacy and examines the reforms of the Lisbon Treaty and their effects on the unity and coherence of EU external action. The authors analyse institutional questions, particularly about the European External Action Service (EEAS) and the role of other EU actors in European foreign policy, and explore recent examples of EU multilateral, bilateral and unilateral diplomacy as well as the external perspective of third actors. The study concludes by investigating the current and future training of the Union's diplomats, which aims to prepare them for an effective EEAS. Will the implementation of the Lisbon Treaty reforms make the EU fit for the future? Can a common European foreign policy ensure that European interests are taken into consideration and that European values shape international relations? Will the European Union be an actor or an object on the international stage in the coming decades?