The European Union has emerged on to the world stage as a global actor surprisingly recently. However the EU is now, quite rightly, regarded as the second most powerful, wealthy and influential international presence and the only one with the genuine clout to rival the US. This has been seen recently on issues as varied as international security, peacekeeping, global warming, trade and human rights. This book examines the emergence, role and future of the EU as an actor in world politics. It looks at the core areas of European foreign policy: economy; trade; the environment; development;...

This book presents a comparative perspective to the study of European politics, focusing on the unique and transformative effect of European Union on the politics of its member states - in effect, the Europeanization of European politics. For no other world region is there a similar intensity of Treaty and other obligations on a set of neighboring states, nor a comparable depth of of supranational governance. The concept of Europeanism as an evaluative theme is used to explore this unique, sui generis, region, its states, and its political transformation in the 21st century.