Contemporary European Foreign Policy

This major new book introduces and examines the latest developments in European foreign policy. It provides a complete overview of the ways in which the very nature of foreign policy in Europe has changed and advances new insights into contemporary European foreign policy analysis.

The book is structured around three parts. Part one provides a concise overview of the latest theories and concepts in this growing field of study and research. Part two assembles and reviews a series of contemporary issue areas including security and defense, economic foreign policy, diplomacy, national cooperation, human rights, and sovereignty. Part three mirrors and builds on Part two by providing an applied case study to each of the preceding topics.

Throughout the book the authors address and incorporate both the national and European Union levels of foreign policy and explore the complex interactions between the two.

The result is a book that will be essential reading for all students and researchers seeking a deeper understanding of European foreign policy today and the wider implications for future foreign policy analysis in politics and international relations.

The 16 essays presented here by Carlsnaes (government, Uppsala U., Sweden), Sjursen (senior researcher, ARENA - Centre for European Studies, U. of Oslo, Norway), and White (international relations, Warwick U. and Staffordshire U., UK) have their roots in research conducted at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs and the ARENA program at the U. of Oslo. They were conceived to grapple with the complex and interrelated European developments within foreign policy since the emergence of the European Union. After introductions to theories and concepts of European policy, individual chapters consider the analytical dimensions of security and defense, foreign economic policy, diplomacy, national foreign policy coordination, collective identity, human rights, and sovereignty and intervention. In addition, a group of case studies, conceived to address the analytic concepts just presented, consider such topics as the EU police mission in Bosnia-Herzegovina, EU-Mediterranean economic relations, the impact of the EU on Member State diplomacy, collective identity in the Greek case, the European Charter of Fundamental Rights, and EU interventionism in the "near abroad." Annotation ©2005 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Helene Sjursen has been at ARENA since 1997. She has previousy worked as a lecturer in politics at the University of Glasgow and the University College Dublin. She holds a Ph.D. in international relations from London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).

Sjursen was Visiting Research Fellow at the European Institute, London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in the lent and summer term of 2006. She was also a Nordic Visting Fellow at the International Relations Department at LSE in 1999.