This new volume develops a conceptual framework for considering and evaluating the roles played by the EU in international politics, drawing upon the literatures of role analysis, international relations and European integration. It pays particular attention to five aspects of role analysis: role conceptions, origins of roles, role institutionalization, role performance and role impact. These form themes running through the volume and are dealt with in individual contributions as appropriate. It also presents fresh applications and empirical case studies that support the conceptual framework and demonstrate the uses of role analysis in relation to the EU and its international activities, and its capacity to inform investigation from different perspectives and standpoints. By taking this approach and by providing both conceptual and empirical argument, this book delivers an innovative perspective on the analysis of the European Union as an international actor, and on the ways in which EU actions are formed and have impact. It also establishes a research agenda based on rigorous development of the framework for role analysis, and demonstrates the ways in which this agenda might be furthered.
Author(s): Ole Elgstrom, Michael Smith
Edition: 1
Year: 2006
Language: English
Pages: 240
Book Cover......Page 1
Half-Title......Page 2
Series-Title......Page 3
Title......Page 8
Copyright......Page 9
Contents......Page 10
Illustrations......Page 12
Notes on the contributors......Page 13
Series editor's preface......Page 15
Acknowledgements......Page 17
Abbreviations......Page 18
Introduction......Page 22
1 Role theory and European foreign policy: A framework of analysis......Page 32
2 A multilateralist for the EU......Page 51
3 Interpreted values: A normative reading of EU role conceptions and performance......Page 68
4 The symbolic manifestation of the EU's normative role in world politics......Page 87
5 Values or rights: Alternative conceptions of the EU's 'normative' role......Page 106
6 Muscles from Brussels: The demise of civilian power Europe......Page 122
7 The EU's role as a promoter of human rights and democracy: Enlargement policy practice and role formation......Page 139
8 The constraints on EU action as a 'norm exporter' in the Mediterranean......Page 157
9 The limits of proactive cosmoplitanism: The EU and Burma, Cuba and Zimbabwe......Page 176
10 Proactive policy entrepreneur or risk minimizer: A prinicipal–agent interpretation of the EU's role in the WTO......Page 193
11 Punching its weight: The EU's use of WTO dispute resolution......Page 210
12 Institutions, ideas and a leadership gap: The EU's role in multilateral competition policy......Page 229
13 The EU's role(s) in European public health: The interdependence of roles within a saturated space of international organizations......Page 246
Conclusion......Page 266
Index......Page 273
