ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces the analytical framework that the empirical chapters of this volume apply, distinguishing between the book's two research objectives, that is, understanding and explaining the external engagement of the European Union (EU). It introduces and operationalizes a set of concepts that allow for better understanding EU external engagement in fields with originally internal policies. The chapter discusses the assessment of the key concepts of actorness as well as of EU external engagement, its forms and extent. The objective of understanding EU external engagement can be split into two subordinate aims. First, EU external engagement is conditioned by the extent to which the Union has developed the capacity to act, that is, 'the extent to which the Union has become an actor in global politics', captured in the notion of actorness. The second major objective of the book relates to theorizing the EU's external engagement in areas that were originally solely or predominantly internal policy domains.
