The European Union as a Diplomatic Actor: Internal, Traditional, and Structural Diplomacy
Author(s)
Keukeleire, Stephan
Abstract
Assesses the effectiveness of the European Union as an actor in international affairs within the framework of common foreign and security policy. Although its members have given the European Union authority, backed by military force, to implement policies in times of crisis, the European Union failed to deal with issues like Bosnia or Rwanda in part because the member states did not want the European Union to supersede their own state policy and because of the required unanimity rule to make decisions. The president of the European Union possesses little power over the Council of Ministers, whose mandates tend to be weak and strengthen the president only when there is a clear consensus. Otherwise, there is no common foreign policy within the European Union and there is likely to be no common security policy in the future.
