The first book to explore the EU's record as a global actor since the creation of the Common Foreign and Security Policy in 1993 within the context of the Treaty of Amsterdam and recent decisions relating to NATO and EU enlargement. The chapters focus on:
* the interface between EU foreign and trade policies
* the EU's relationship with European defence organizations
* its behaviour within the OSCE and UN
* the institutional consequences of the CFSP
* case studies of EU policies towards Central and Eastern Europe and the Maghreb countries.
The editors draw the findings together to assess whether the EU has been successful as a global actor and consider the question: can the EU become a more credible, reliable and unitary global actor?