Source: Red Globe Press

This new coursebook situates the European Union in a dramatically changed world order. Resisting a more traditional focus on the EU’s sui generis rules and instruments, this innovative new text demonstrates how hard the union must work today to retain its international influence. Taking into account the latest empirical developments, including the spread of war and violence in the East with Ukraine and the ongoing turbulent politics of the Middle East and North Africa, the book stresses how the EU has been forced to act differently. The book adopts a unique outside-in conceptual framework that inverts the way that the EU external action is studied and understood. It unpacks the different international challenges the EU has faced in recent years, including the weakening of global order, the need for more protective security, geoeconomic competition, climate change, and conflicts to its east and south. In each case the book examines how the EU has responded and how its core international identity has changed as a result, assessing whether the union still retains strong global influence.