Italy s foreign policy has often been dismissed as too idiosyncratic, inconsistent and lacking ambition.

This book offers new insights into the position Italy has attained in the international community in the 21st century. It explores how the country has sought to take advantage of its passage from a bipolar to a multipolar system and assesses the ways in which it has engaged internationally, its new responsibilities, and the manner in which it conducts its policies in the pursuit of its interests, whether political or commercial. It argues that although Italy is engaged internationally, there is a gap between its actions and what it actually delivers, and as long as this gap continues Italy is likely to remain a partial and unreliable foreign policy actor. Divided into three parts, this book explores:

• the context and processes which characterise Italy s external action
• its relations with crucial countries and regions such as the US, the EU, and the BRICs
• its security and defence policies.

This book will be of interest to students and scholars of European Politics, Foreign Policy analysis and Italian studies."

In recent years the European Union (EU) has played an increasingly important role as a manager of global conflicts. This book provides a comprehensive assessment of how the EU has performed in facilitating mediation, conflict resolution and peacebuilding across the globe.

Offering an accessible introduction to the theories, processes and practice of the EU s role in managing conflict, the book features a broad range of case studies including Afghanistan, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Cyprus, Israel-Palestine, Macedonia and Moldova and examines both the institutional and policy aspects including the common foreign, security and defence policy.

Drawing together a wide range of contributors, this will be of great interest to students of European Foreign Policy, the EU as a global actor and conflict resolution and management.

Rethinking the European Union draws together contributors from across Europe to reflect upon methods of conceptualising the European Union within both changing global and European contexts. Rethinking takes the themes of institutions, interests and identities as its organising framework within which each contributor offering a distinctive commentary on the EU. The outcome is a text that goes beyond an exploration of the existing methods of conceptualising the European integration process and reflects upon the nature of the EU itself.

This new Handbook brings together key experts on European security from the academic and policy worlds to examine the European Union (EU) as an international security actor. In the two decades since the end of the Cold War, the EU has gradually emerged as an autonomous actor in the field of security, aiming to safeguard European security by improving global security. However, the EU's development as a security actor has certainly not remained uncontested, either by academics or by policy-makers, some of whom see the rise of the EU as a threat to their national and/or transatlantic policy outlook. While the focus of this volume is on the politico-military dimension, security will also be put into the context of the holistic approach advocated by the EU. The book is organised into four key sections: Part I - The EU as an International Security Actor Part II - Institutions, Instruments and Means Part III - Policies Part IV - Partners This Handbook will be essential reading for all students of European Security, the EU, European Politics, security studies and IR in general.

This new Handbook brings together key experts on European security from the academic and policy worlds to examine the European Union (EU) as an international security actor. In the two decades since the end of the Cold War, the EU has gradually emerged as an autonomous actor in the field of security, aiming to safeguard European security by improving global security. However, the EU's development as a security actor has certainly not remained uncontested, either by academics or by policy-makers, some of whom see the rise of the EU as a threat to their national and/or transatlantic policy outlook. While the focus of this volume is on the politico-military dimension, security will also be put into the context of the holistic approach advocated by the EU. The book is organised into four key sections: Part I - The EU as an International Security Actor Part II - Institutions, Instruments and Means Part III - Policies Part IV - Partners This Handbook will be essential reading for all students of European Security, the EU, European Politics, security studies and IR in general.

Italy's foreign policy has often been dismissed as too idiosyncratic, inconsistent and lacking ambition. This book offers new insights into the position Italy has attained in the international community in the 21st century. It explores how the country has sought to take advantage of its passage from a bipolar to a multipolar system and assesses the ways in which it has engaged internationally, its new responsibilities, and the manner in which it conducts its policies in the pursuit of its interests, whether political or commercial. It argues that although Italy is engaged internationally, there is a gap between its actions and what it actually delivers, and as long as this gap continues Italy is likely to remain a partial and unreliable foreign policy actor. Divided into three parts, this book explores: the context and processes which characterise Italy's external action its relations with crucial countries and regions such as the US, the EU, and the BRICs its security and defence policies. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of European Politics, Foreign Policy analysis and Italian studies.

The European Union has increasingly taken on a role as international security provider that extends beyond the geographical scope of its membership. This is clear from the wide range of military and civilian crisis management missions that the Union has undertaken, but also identifiable through its other policies, such as the European Neighbourhood Policy and development assistance, which have also to some extent become security focused. Yet, the role of the EU as an international security provider remains under-theorized and weakly understood. The proposed book analyses the Union's role as an international security provider in a comprehensive way developing theoretical as well as empirical grounding for the understanding of the making and implementation of EU security policy. The contributions in this book cover actors involved in the policy making process, the dynamics of this process itself, its outcomes (strategies and policies) and their impact on the ground. They examine the relevance of, and apply, existing theories of international relations, international security and foreign policy analysis to the specific case of the EU, investigate empirically how particular policies are formulated and implemented, and study the impact and effectiveness of the Union as an international security provider in a variety of cases compared. This book was previously published as a special issue of Global Society.

Rethinking the European Union draws together contributors from across Europe to reflect upon methods of conceptualising the European Union within both changing global and European contexts. The book takes the themes of institutions, interests and identities as its organising framework within which each contributor offers a distinctive commentary on the EU. The outcome is a text that goes beyond an exploration of the existing methods of conceptualising the European integration process and reflects upon the nature of the EU itself.

The only comparative analysis of the foreign policies of European Union member states. Examines those policies which are 'Europeanised' through the EU's processes and those policies which are retained or excluded from these processes. Analyses the dual impact of the Maastricht Treaty on the European Union, and the post-Cold War environment on the foreign policy processes of the EU's member states. Argues for a distinctive approach to the foreign policy analysis of EU states which recognises the fundamental changes that membership brings after the Cold War, but also acknowledges the diverse role of policies which states seek to retain or advance as being 'special'. All the empirical chapters are structured by six sets of explanatory questions. -- .

In recent years the European Union (EU) has played an increasingly important role as a manager of global conflicts. This book provides a comprehensive assessment of how the EU has performed in facilitating mediation, conflict resolution and peacebuilding across the globe.

Offering an accessible introduction to the theories, processes and practice of the EU s role in managing conflict, the book features a broad range of case studies including Afghanistan, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Cyprus, Israel-Palestine, Macedonia and Moldova and examines both the institutional and policy aspects including the common foreign, security and defence policy.

Drawing together a wide range of contributors, this will be of great interest to students of European Foreign Policy, the EU as a global actor and conflict resolution and management.