Overview
Illustrates the dynamics currently hampering or favouring the EU’s actorness at the global level
Questions whether the changing international context affects the EU’s ability to be a relevant international actor
Aims to determine the areas in which the EU has successfully adapted its regional instruments and approaches
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Table of contents (18 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Actorness across EU Policy Areas
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Front Matter
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EU Regional Actorness
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Front Matter
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External Views on EU Actorness
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Front Matter
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Keywords
About this book
This book contributes to the literature on the EU’s role in the international system by engaging with the debates on global actorness and mapping new conceptual and theoretical avenues to better understand how agency and power are exerted at the global and regional levels, in a context of increased contestation of the international liberal order. Organised around three main lines, the book first looks at how the EU positions itself internationally in different policy areas, providing a multi-dimensional reading of EU policies, instruments, and practices; secondly, it engages with the EU’s own perspective toward its regional contexts and with the perspectives of regional actors on the EU; and, thirdly, it explores non-European perspectives on EU actorness, as the way the EU is perceived by others in this system of contested leadership is central to how it is understood in terms of policies, instruments, and overall capability to lead and act as a global power.
Reviews
“This timely edited collection features a rich and stimulating analysis of EU actorness across policy areas and regions, and also features chapters on the external perceptions of key international partners, such as China and the US. It is essential reading for those who want to better understand the EU’s role as an international actor in the context of an increasingly contested international liberal order.”
— Ana E. Juncos, Professor of European Politics, University of Bristol, UK“Ever since its formulation, the capabilities-expectations gap has informed discussions of EU actorness. It led the effort to improve and increase capabilities. But, so the editors suggest, what if the issue was the increasingly difficult task to determine for which coherent purpose(s) all these capabilities are supposed to serve? The volume’s wide coverage of the often conflicting aims across different policy sectors and regional dynamics testifies to this formidable challenge. The task is further complicated, so the volume demonstrates, by the frequent mismatch between the role-expectations by other members of the international society, divergent among each other, and the EU’s self-understanding. The EU’s actorness remains caught between a pragmatic call to become a normal actor which undermines its specific identity to represent other than normal world politics, and a normative power that suffers however from not having yet succeeded to propose a coherent purpose across policy sectors and regions.”
— Stefano Guzzini, Uppsala University, Sweden & Pontifícia Universidade Católica (PUC) do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
“Despite and even because of its many challenges, the European Union remains the paragon of regional integration. This rich collection, originating from seasoned scholars at Portugal’s ancient University of Coimbra, offers truly international perspectives on the EU and its relations with countries and regions. EU specialists and comparative regionalists and those intrigued by contending forms of actorness in world politics will benefit from the rich and diverse perspectives offered, ones often overlooked and worth hearing.”
— Rick Fawn, University of St. Andrews, UKEditors and Affiliations
About the editors
Maria Raquel Freire is Professor of International Relations at the Faculty of Economics and Researcher at the Centre for Social Studies, University of Coimbra, Portugal.
Paula Duarte Lopes is Assistant Professor of International Relations at the Faculty of Economics and Researcher at the Centre for Social Studies, University of Coimbra, Portugal.
Daniela Nascimento is Assistant Professor of International Relations at the Faculty of Economics and Researcher at the Centre for Social Studies, University of Coimbra, Portugal.
Licínia Simão is Assistant Professor of International Relations at the Faculty of Economics and Researcher at the Centre for Social Studies, University of Coimbra, Portugal.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: EU Global Actorness in a World of Contested Leadership
Book Subtitle: Policies, Instruments and Perceptions
Editors: Maria Raquel Freire, Paula Duarte Lopes, Daniela Nascimento, Licínia Simão
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-92997-8
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: Political Science and International Studies, Political Science and International Studies (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-92996-1Published: 02 March 2022
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-92999-2Published: 03 March 2023
eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-92997-8Published: 01 March 2022
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XIX, 309
Number of Illustrations: 2 b/w illustrations, 5 illustrations in colour
Topics: European Politics, International Relations, Foreign Policy