ABSTRACT

This chapter begins with a discussion of what is mean by critical theories. It provides an overview of how different critical theories have provided useful insights into the EU's external relations, particularly focusing on recent discussions of Eastern European enlargement and the EU's development policy. The chapter identifies some of the central claims of the key critical theories that have thus far been applied to the process of European integration and the place of the EU within global governance. Attempts to develop postcolonialist critical theories of the EU's external relations have tended to focus on the way in which the EU seeks to postulate its supremacy vis-a-vis external actors and states. Postcolonialist critical theories have therefore sought to show how the dominant narrative of European integration acts to exclude and conceal the colonial and postcolonial relations within which EU member states are embedded. The chapter concludes with an overview of the merits of critical theories, as applied to EU external relations.