This edited volume provides a timely analysis of the European Union’s ‘privileged’ partnerships with neighbouring countries, identifying key points of comparison.It analyses which policy areas are covered and why, the reasons why a specific institutional arrangement has been chosen, the major advantages and shortcomings for both sides and how effectively the privileged partnerships have worked in practice. Drawing on a number of case studies, the book highlights critical junctures ...

This groundbreaking new textbook offers extensive coverage of EU External Action studies, from its major concepts to the key theories in the field. Over the past decades, the European Union has progressively developed into a significant global actor in an increasing number of policy fields. This long-awaited volume looks into different ways of conceptualizing the EU as a global actor, the processes and impact of EU external action, explanations offered by IR and integration theories, the d...

Despite growing scholarly interest in the EU’s flagship policy towards its Eastern and Southern neighbours, serious attempts at theory-building on the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) have been largely absent from the academic debate.This book aims at contributing to fill this research gap in a three-fold manner: first and foremost it aims at theorizing the ENP as such, explaining the origins, development and effectiveness of this policy. Building on this effort, it also pursues...

This comprehensive and clearly written textbook offers a long-awaited introduction to the trade policy of the European Union, the world's largest trading entity. Gstöhl and De Bièvre provide a comprehensive assessment of the common commercial policy, its relationship with other policies, like development policy, and of the EU's multi-level policy-making and international bargaining in this area.As well as providing a broad overview of the nature and development of the EU's trade po...

The European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) has evolved into one of the European Union's major foreign policy instruments and received considerable attention. However, other EU neighbourhood policies, and their relevance for the ENP, also require examination. The Arab uprisings, civil wars in Libya and Syria, the continuing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the crisis in Ukraine and Russia's annexation of the Crimean peninsula have all brought the institutional design and tools of the ENP into que...

In recent decades, the external action of the European Union (EU) has been undergoing considerable change. An expansion of the EU’s external policy portfolio can be observed in many areas as previous policies for internal purposes – such as competition, energy, the environment, justice and home affairs or monetary governance but also gender, science, culture or higher education – have developed external dimensions.This book addresses the EU’s potential to become a more joined-up gl...

Over the past decade the European Union (EU) has gradually developed the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) with its neighbours. At the same time, the ‘neighbours of the EU’s neighbours’ have presented new challenges.This book addresses the EU’s broader neighbourhood, comprising of the ENP countries and the neighbours of its neighbours. With specific focus on Saharan Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia, it discusses trans-regional policy issues that arise from the EU’s relati...

Should the European Neighbourhood Policy stop at the borders of the European Union’s immediate neighbouring countries? This book is the first full length study of the ’neighbours of the EU’s neighbours’, a concept originally introduced by the European Commission with reference to Saharan Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia. These regions in the EU’s broader neighbourhood are often perceived as an ’arc of crisis’ from which manifold challenges emanate for Europe. This timely book takes...

The fast-developing relationship between China and Europe has become one of the most important in international affairs. China-Europe Relations takes an innovative and insightful look at this phenomenon, examining:the state of Chinese studies in Europe and European studies in Chinathe decision-making behind the EU’s China policy, and what the Chinese perceptions and assessments are of Europe that shape China’s Europe policy

The 1990s saw a constant increase in international peace missions, predominantly led by the United Nations, whose mandates were more and more extended to implement societal and political transformations in post-conflict societies. However, in many cases these missions did not meet the high expectations and did not acquire a sufficient legitimacy on the local level. Written by leading experts in the field, this edited volume brings together ‘liberal’ and ‘post-liberal’ approaches to peacebu...

This volume examines and contributes to debates surrounding social capital, social movements and the role of civil society in emerging forms of governance.The authors adopt a broad range of research approaches, from testing hypotheses drawn from rationale choice theory against available statistics on associations, to ethnographic study of emerging attempts at participant / deliberative democracy. Divided into three clear sections, focusing on the following core aspects of civil soc...

The last quarter of a century has seen an unprecedented wave of democratization around the globe. In these transitions from authoritarian rule to a more democratic order, the media have played a key role both by facilitating, but frequently also inhibiting, democratic practices to take root. This book provides an accessible and systematic introduction to the media in transitional democracies. It analyses the problems that occur when transforming the media into independent institutions that...