This comprehensive, up-to-date and theoretically informed text examines the full range of the European Union's external relations, including the Common Foreign and Security Policy.

It looks at the increasingly important part the EU plays in global politics. The authors argue that the EU's significance cannot be grasped by making comparisons with traditional states. Key issues covered include:

* the status, coherence, consistency and roles of the EU as an actor, and what being an actor means in practice.
* how the field of trade relations forms the basis of the EUs activities
* the EU in global environmental diplomacy, North-South relations and in relation to the Mediterranean and East/Central Europe
* the EUs controversial relationship to the Common Foreign and Security Policy and defence.