Crisis and Change in European Union Foreign Policy: A Framework of Eu Foreign Policy Change

Description

Crisis and change in European Union foreign policy provides an analytical framework that serves to investigate the way the EU adapts its foreign policy in the wake of crisis. Whereas a range of studies dedicated to foreign policy stability and change exist for the US context, such analyses are rare for the analysis of EU foreign policy change. Changes to EU foreign policy, this study proposes based upon an in-depth investigation of recent foreign policy change episodes, are not captured well using these existing accounts and typologies of policy change from other fields of study. Offering a new perspective on the question of change, Ikani proposes an analytical framework focused on how institutions and temporal context impact the decision-making process on change. She provides an original revised typology of change, proposing two forms of foreign policy change, symbolic change and constructive ambiguity, as frequent and important outcomes of the EU decision-making process.

Nikki Ikani is Assistant Professor Intelligence and Security at Leiden University at the Institute of Security and Global Affairs. She is also a Visiting Research Fellow at the War Studies Department at King's College London. -- .

'The book provides a timely analysis of the impact of crisis on EU foreign policy and the ENP. [...] For academics interested in the details of foreign policy change, this book is a welcome contribution that challenges thin conceptualizations of this phenomenon as a cumulative process. And for policy-makers who are unsure how to deal with today's challenges in the EU's neighbourhood, this book is a useful reflection upon past decisions. Ikani recognizes the opportunities and constraints of the institutional and temporal factors and encourages policy-makers to actively shape the substance and direction of change in the future.' Trineke Palm, International Affairs, Volume 98, Issue 6 -- .