European foreign policy: Key documents

Book abstract:

Frequently criticised for being an economic giant but political pygmy the European Union is increasingly becoming a more unified and influential actor in global politics. This book collects together basic official documents, which are otherwise inaccessible, and traces the development of European foreign policy from the end of the Second World War to the present day including material on the Kosovo crisis.

The first part of the book adopts a chronological layout with three sections which trace the institutional development of European co-operation in the foreign policy field from the Brussels Treaty in 1948 right through to the European Council meeting in Helsinki in 1999. The first section deals with the origins of the European Political Co-operation and with various abortive attempts to create a mechanism for generating European foreign policy before the actual emergence of the EPC in 1969. The mainstream institutional developments of EPC from 1969 to 1997 are covered in the second section and the third section covers the specialised area of security and the evolution of the WEU.

The second part of the book focuses on the major policy developments since the 1970s. This part is divided into numerous sub-sections with headings such as 'East-West and transatlantic relations', 'Relations with Central and Eastern Europe', 'Relations with the Soviet Union', 'Middle East peace process', 'Terrorism: Libya and Syria' and 'The Gulf War'. There is extensive coverage of the Euro-Mediterranean initiative and war in the former Yugoslavia.

This book will provide the specialist on European international relations with a collection of official documents not available elsewhere as well as the basic texts on the subject for the undergraduate student. The reader will be helped by a linking commentary and a series of cross-references which should help to explain the context and origins of each document.