This book makes an original contribution to the debate by bringing together competing visions of the European Union's Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP). It offers a definitive assessment of the post-Maastricht evolution of the EU's role as a global actor, as well as a prognosis for the CFSP given the reforms mandated by the 1997 Amsterdam treaty.
A key finding which emerges from this volume is that the CFSP is in many respects a myth. It does not cover all aspects of foreign and security policy not is it often made in a "spirit of loyalty and mutual solidarity". The book features chapters on the interface between EU foreign and trade policies, the EU's relationship with European defense organizations, the institutional consequences of the Amsterdam Treaty and case studies of Union politics towards Eastern and Central Europe, Latin America and the Mediterranean.