ABSTRACT
A commonly asked question about the European Union (EU) is whether it has a foreign policy that is more than the sum of its parts. Is the EU, in other words, a foreign policy actor in its own right rather than a mere aggregation of the lowest common denominator of EU member states’ foreign policies? What meaning is attributed to the EU as an agent of foreign-policy action? This chapter proposes that a role theory analysis will enrich our understanding of how to characterize European foreign policy. A role reflects a claim on the international system, a recognition by international actors, and a conception of identity (Le Prestre 1997: 5-6). The coherence and effectiveness of the EU in international politics are largely contingent on how widely shared and stable European foreign policy norms and rules of action are. European foreign policy is here given a broad definition and is understood as the EU’s international action.
