ABSTRACT

This book examines the ability of the EU and European actor networks to coherently and effectively navigate, manage, and influence debates and policy on the international stage. It also questions whether increasing complexity across a range of critical global issues and networks has affected this ability.

Engaging with the growing theoretical and conceptual literature on networks and complexity, the book provides a deeper understanding of how the European Union and European actors navigate within global networks and complex regimes across a range of regulatory, policy cooperation, and foreign and security policy issue areas. It sheds light on how far they are able to respond to and shape solutions to some of the most pressing challenges on the global agenda in the 21st century.

This book will be of key interest to scholars and students of EU/European and global networks and more broadly to European and EU studies, Global Governance, International Relations, International Political Economy, and Foreign Policy and Security Studies.

chapter |14 pages

Introduction

Networks, complexity, and the global order

part I|54 pages

Conceptualising networks in the face of complexity

part II|154 pages

Case studies in global networks and European actors

chapter 4|19 pages

Ruling in a complex world

Private regulatory networks and the export of European data protection rules

chapter 5|20 pages

Navigating an emerging knowledge structure

Where does the EU stand on sustainable finance?

chapter 8|16 pages

Environmental governance networks

Climate change and biodiversity

chapter 10|16 pages

Multi-level diplomacy in Europe in the digital century

The case of Science Diplomacy

chapter 12|10 pages

Conclusions

Global complexity, networks, and the role of EU and European actors