Where in the World Is the EU?

The European Union (EU) is still a relatively recent arrival on the international scene. With its great potential in economic terms but gaping deficits in other domains such as hard security, the scope of its international ambitions remains uncertain. Sometimes it presents itself rather grandiosely as an anchor of global stability, at other times its horizon does not seem to extend much beyond the surrounding regions.

As a new foreign policy leadership team took the helm in Brussels at the end of 2014, this is an appropriate time to examine the global and regional dimensions of the EU’s external action in detail.

+ Visits of the EU’s Top Officials
+ Declarations of the High Representative
+ Conclusions of the European Council and of the Foreign Affairs Council
+ Direct Engagement (Sanctions, civilian and military operations, trade, and development assistance)
+ Size of EU Delegations

The way eight of the EU’s instruments are deployed around the globe sheds some light on the global and regional footprints of the union’s external action and shows where it places special emphasis and where it is largely absent. Three of the tools are traditional means of EU diplomacy: visits of the EU’s top leaders; declarations of the high representative, the union’s foreign policy chief; as well as conclusions of the European Council and of the foreign ministers’ council. Next are four important types of operational engagement, namely sanctions, civilian and military operations, trade, and EU assistance. The final instrument considered is the size of EU delegations, which represent a significant part of the infrastructure of the EU’s external policies.

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