Introduction

There has been during the past 20 years an almost continuous debate about the nature of the European Union (EU) as an international actor (Allen and Smith 1990, 1998; Bretherton and Vogler 1999; Carlsnaes et al. 2004; Hill 1993, 1998; Hill and Smith 2005; Knodt and Princen 2003; Peterson and Sjursen 1998; H. Smith 2002; K. Smith 2003; Tonra and Christiansen 2004; White 2001; Whitman 1998). At one end of the spectrum are those who see the EU as a potential state, or at least the performer of essential state functions in the international political arena. At the other end are those who see the EU as at best a patchy and fragmented international participant, and as little more than a system of regular diplomatic co-ordination between the member states. In between, there are a host of more or less exotic approaches dealing with notions such as ‘presence’, with the links and the tensions between institutionalization and the generation of collective identities and understandings, and with the specific characteristics of EU actions and impacts in particular issue areas.