A Mere Irrelevance? Assessing the EU’s Foreign and Security Policy

In this paper I delineate two ways to examine the EU’s foreign and security policy. The first focuses on the internal aspects of the CFSP, that is, the degree and form of integration. The second takes what the EU does as its starting point, and addresses the substance of foreign policy. I argue that there is evidence of a large scale transformation in the processes of European foreign policy making and in the interaction between national and EU levels of decision-making. This transformation challenges deep seated ideas of foreign policy as the exclusive domain of the state. However, turning to the substance of foreign policy, the evidence of transformation, is more uncertain. There is a need for further conceptual and theoretical work, developing appropriate analytical tools to assess if the substance of EU foreign policy is different from that of states. Finally, in the last part of the paper I discuss the implications of the ongoing transformations for the democratic legitimacy of European foreign policy.