Special Issue: EU external trade policies

The special issue aims to foster academic debate between different paradigmatic perspectives on European Union external trade policies. Empirically a wide range of trade- related topics are covered such as the EU-South Korea and EU-Canada agreements, the labour and agricultural dimensions of trade policies, and the Lisbon Treaty provisions.

Theoretically, the authors use different perspectives including rational choice institutionalism, intergovernmentalism, historical institutionalism, constructivism, political ecology and critical social theory. The editors evaluate the possibilities and pitfalls of paradigmatic cross-fertilization based on the contributions to this special issue.

Articles include:

Introduction
Theorising European Union Trade Politics: Contending or Complementary Paradigms? by Jan Orbie, Bart Kerremans

Research Articles
European External Trade Policy: The Role of Ideas in German Preference Formation by Gerry Alons

From Idealism to Realism? EU Preferential Trade Agreement Policy by Maria Garcia

The Illusion of Choice: The European Union and the Trade-Labour Linkage by Johan Adriaensen, Montserrat González-Garibay

The European Union as a Conveniently-conflicted Counter-hegemon through Trade by David Bailey, Fabienne Bossuyt

EU Trade Governance and Policy: A Critical Perspective by Lucy Ford

The Power of Economic Ideas: A Constructivist Political Economy of EU Trade Policy by Gabriel Siles-Brügge

The Promise of Critical Historical Institutionalism for EU Trade Policy Analysis by Ferdi De Ville

EU External Trade and the Treaty of Lisbon: A Revised Neofunctionalist Approach by Arne Niemann

Conclusion
Towards Engaged Pluralism in the Study of European Trade Politics by Bart Kerremans, Jan Orbie