ABSTRACT
The Western Member States are drawn together more by geography than any other factor. This chapter examines how the Western European countries in the region pursue their foreign policies as individual states alongside their interaction within the European Union (EU) to assess the extent to which they exhibit areas of commonality. It assesses the key changes and elements of continuity in the individual foreign policies of the West European Member States. The chapter also examines the roles and actions that West Europeans have undertaken through the collective foreign policy of the EU and separately as national foreign policy. However, notwithstanding the organizational significance of the Lisbon Treaty reforms, European collective foreign policy remains substantively in the hands of the Member State governments. The chapter describes the potential of Western European Member States as a coherent grouping. It discusses the roles and modes the countries have adopted and are indeed likely to adopt in future.
