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 discursive, normative, practice and gender 'turns', and the 'decentring agenda' for EU external action. The book offers a reader-friendly guidance on these various ways in which to study the EU as a global actor: each chapter introduces one concept, approach or theory and illustrates its application by a case study of EU external action. In drawing the different perspectives together, the book underscores that 'EU External Action Studies' is becoming an academic speciality in its own right.

Written by leading experts, the volume will make essential reading for students, scholars and practitioners of EU external action.

EU External Action Studies nowadays attract attention from scholars and students in International Relations (IR), Foreign Policy Analysis and (interdisciplinary) EU Studies, as well as from practitioners.

Sieglinde Gstöhl is Director of the Department of EU International Relations and Diplomacy Studies at the College of Europe in Bruges, where she has been Professor since 2005. Previous appointments include Humboldt University Berlin and the Liechtenstein Institute. Her research interests include EU external action, especially EU trade policy, neighbourhood relations and external representation. Among her recent books are The Proliferation of Privileged Partnerships between the European Union and its Neighbours (ed. with D. Phinnemore, 2019); The Trade Policy of the European Union (with D. De Bièvre, 2018); and Theorizing the European Neighbourhood Policy (ed. with S. Schunz, 2017).


Simon Schunz is Professor in the Department of EU International Relations and Diplomacy Studies at the College of Europe, Associate Research Fellow at UNU-CRIS in Bruges and visiting lecturer at the University of Leuven (KU Leuven). His research interests include EU external action with a focus on foreign policy implementation and effects, especially concerning EU external environmental, cultural and science policies, and the EU's relations with major powers. His recent publications include The Evolving Relationship between China, the EU and the USA: A New Global Order? (ed. with J. Men and D. Freeman, 2020) and The European Union's Evolving External Engagement: Towards New Sectoral Diplomacies? (ed. with C. Damro and S. Gstöhl, 2018).