ABSTRACT
There is a common joke that in Heaven, the organizers are Swiss, the lovers are French, the mechanics are German, and the cooks are Italian, while in Hell, the lovers are Swiss, the mechanics are French, the cooks are German, and it’s all organized by the Italians. This light-hearted phrase is telling with regard to the study of the EU, a collection of disparate states which the vast body of literature has not managed either to conclusively classify or to unanimously defi ne. Because of this disparity, it has even been said that the study of the EU has a certain aura of “theoretical uniqueness” (Smith 2004).To examine the creation and deployment of EUPOL COPPS and EUBAM Rafah requires a well-rounded understanding of, and insights into, the EU foreign policy-making mechanism.
