The European External Action Service and national diplomacies

The European External Action Service (EEAS) is meant to equip the EU with the diplomacy and toolbox to deal with the challenges of 21st century, but it also changes how foreign policy is made and Europe’s diplomatic structures. How is the EEAS changing relations between Brussels and European capitals? Have national diplomacies adapted to the new EU foreign policy machinery? And to what extent are the different parts of this complex system working in unison to make the EU the centre of a new global stage? In this paper edited by Rosa Balfour and Kristi Raik, the relationship between the EEAS and member states is analysed through fourteen European countries, looking at patterns of change and adaptation in the restructuring of EU foreign policy.

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