ABSTRACT
The chapter presents the conceptual framework within which the analysis of intercultural dialogue (ICD) as an EU foreign policy instrument is developed in this book. First, it addresses the conception of EU foreign policy adopted for this research, providing an account of its various policy components and of the competences and responsibilities of the actors involved in it. Then, it critically addresses the benefits and limits that different approaches within International Relations theories, European integration scholarship, and governance studies have brought to the understanding of EU foreign policy. Finally, it discusses in depth the choice and the benefits to investigate the EU promotion of ICD in the Mediterranean within a conceptual framework grounded in FPA. The chapter argues that FPA is particularly well-suited to thoroughly address the changes and continuities in ICD within EU action in the Mediterranean. In particular, FPA enables the investigation of both the material and the ideational factors at the root of the behaviour of the wide range of actors that are involved in defining and implementing EU foreign policy and considers foreign policy as a boundary activity, which allows an analysis of the influence of external and domestic factors in the development of its tools.
