About the book
International Relations and the European Union takes a unique approach by incorporating the study of the EU's world role into the wider field of international relations. As the most comprehensive introduction to the EU's international relations written by leading experts in the field, it is the key text for anyone wishing to understand the EU's role in the contemporary world.
Beginning with an examination of theoretical frameworks and approaches, the book goes on to address the institutions and processes that surround the EU's international relations. Key policy areas, such as security and trade, are outlined in detail, alongside the EU's relations with specific countries and regions.
Updates for the fourth edition include new chapters on the EU's relationship with Africa and Asia, coverage of the implementation of the EU's foreign policy, and exploration of how the EU's international relations relate historically to the European integration process, and the contemporary issue of migration.
Democracy and the Populist Surge
How far is populism inside and outside the European Union a challenge to the EU as an international actor? This chapter argues that the democratic legitimacy of the Union’s external powers and behaviours depends on assumptions about its own internal political order and international order that are especially vulnerable to populism. The chapter identifies four populist threats to democratic politics. It then discusses standards of democratic legitimacy the EU will need to satisfy where it acts internationally. It then argues that the forms of democratic politics threatened by populism are precisely those important to the European Union and to the international roles available to it.
Principles in EU foreign policy: How distinctive?
Analyses of the European Union (EU)’s foreign policies often rest on a dichotomy between interests and power on the one hand, and norms and values on the other. Based on this dichotomy, the EU is frequently portrayed as a unique international actor and as a champion of global values. But principles, values, and norms are key elements of any foreign policy, as they are in international politics in general, and different normative principles might induce the EU to exercise power in different ways. Drawing on a distinction between the principles of sovereignty, human rights, and a common good, this chapter challenges the conventional wisdom of the EU as a distinctive foreign policy actor. It suggests that while holding on to the importance of a transformation of international politics, of binding and constraining states, EU foreign policy mainly seeks to ensure the present system is sustained and improved. It does so through an emphasis on the principle of external sovereignty and its corollary norms. The unresolved tensions in the EU’s internal constitution, between its cosmopolitan vocation and the ambition of (EU) nation building, are thus reflected also in the Union’s foreign policy
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Chapter 7: Democracy and the Populist Surge
Christopher Lord
Chapter 19: Principles in EU foreign policy: How distinctive?
Helene Sjursen
In: International Relations and the European Union
Christopher Hill, Michael Smith, and Sophie Vanhoonacker (eds)
Oxford University Press (2023)
ISBN: 9780192897343