This ground-breaking volume provides a new perspective on the EU’s foreign policy and offers a reconstruction of EU research that extends beyond narrow-minded concepts of ‘power’ and ‘actorness’. Focusing on two intertwined research questions, it presents a more sustainable base for studying EU foreign policy:

1. What is the EU’s foreign policy quality in terms of ‘actorness’ and ‘power’ compared to other types of actors in international relations and global politics?
2. What factors influence the EU’s foreign policy performance in comparison to states and international organizations?

This guiding principle and application of a ‘grounded theory’ or ‘heuristic case study’ approach allows the book to deliver a structured comparative analysis of EU foreign policy, comparing findings across policy fields, different legal foundations and respective policy modes of governance.

This book will be of key interest to students and scholars of European Union studies, European Union foreign policy studies, international relations, and security policy studies.