Abstract: This paper aims at reconstructing the largely unexplored administrative dimension of the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP), with particular reference to the growing web of functional, organizational and procedural interconnections between the EU, the Nato and the United...

How can we explain that small states are able to influence decisions over the EU's external policy? The aim of this article is to explain why small states are able to influence decisions in the EU's foreign and security policy with a detailed analysis of the Swedish-Finnish initiative on...

Much of the empirical work on the European Union's Common Foreign and Security Policy suggests that there is something "more" going on in this field than what we might expect if we rely on traditional realist or more sophisticated rational choice perspectives in our analyses. However, it is not...

This paper aims at exploring the impact that the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, solemnly proclaimed in December 2000, might have on the relationships of the Union with applicant countries and with third states. Although not formally legally binding, it is argued that the...

This article argues that a key to the influence of the EU in foreign policy is its consistent basis for the latter in terms of the legitmacy of human rights in current international affairs. Humanrights norms today carry both normative power in a public discourse on foreign policy, and they are...

The principal hypothesis in this paper is that a twofold change (in the referent object of security; and in the understanding and practice of the best means to achieve security) is taking place in European security and defence. In order to investigate the empirical relevance of this hypothesis,...

In 1997, Finland presented a major foreign policy initiative labelled the ‘Northern Dimension’ (ND) that was quickly included as a part of the EU’s external relations. Many analysts seem to argue that the EU’s foreign policy is a big power concert where intergovernmental bargaining...

Diplomacy as a framework of principles, rules and organized patterns of behavior regulating interstate relations in the Westphalian system of states is challenged by the process of European integration. This paper conceptualizes diplomacy and its change using two new institutionalist...

This paper asks how we can make sense of the efforts in the late 1990s to strengthen the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) of the EU and build common institutional structures and shared capabilities in security and defence. Was it only a passing phenomenon, dependent on a particular and...

Why, how and when does an issue become a European interest and a European priority? Under what conditions does the EC/EU decide to launch a foreign policy initiative? When does a topic get on the EC/EU agenda of foreign affairs? In this paper the author raises the question of how, when and why...