The European Union as a Global Actor

When trade, global warming or human rights, local conflicts - or indeed most of the major global issues are reported - the European Union is increasingly involved. It is not a state, yet in many respects it rivals the USA. This poses a problem for IR theory which is more accustomed to dealing with sovereign state actors.

This new, and substantially re-written, edition of The European Union as a Global Actor seeks to address this issue and develops a theoretical approach to understanding the European Union as an actor in the global system, and applies it across the range of the EU's external activities.

This edition includes:
· A new emphasis on the construction of identity and its relation to actor capability
· An investigation of external constructions of the Union, through a wide range of interviews with the staff of third country missions
· A substantive analysis of the dimensions of EU external action based on new research which provide a wide coverage of recent developments in economic, environmental, development, foreign and now military policy
· An up to date source on the structures, procedures and content of EU external action.

The European Union as a Global Actor builds upon the ground-breaking constructivist approach to defining and explaining the development of the European actor formulated within the first edition. This book provides an invaluable and comprehensive resource for students within interests in European studies, International Relations and Politics.