ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that, in order to achieve a genuine understanding of the EU's relationship with and policies towards its broader neighbourhood, it is essential to complement an EU-centered perspective with what is labelled as an 'outside-in' perspective. It provides possible explanations for the recurrent neglect of the outside' in the analysis of EU foreign policy. The chapter offers several building blocks for adopting an outside-in' perspective and applies this on the EU's policy towards the neighbours of its neighbours. It draws lessons from an 'outside-in' perspective for the various actors involved in EU foreign policy, including the High Representative, the European External Action Service (EEAS) and the EU Delegations. The presence of non-Western scholars and non-Western approaches in publications on EU foreign policy is rather limited. The analysis of foreign policy also suffers from the limited explanatory power of predominant Western perspectives and categories to analyse non-Western contexts.
