ABSTRACT
The emergence of a (common) European foreign policy and thereby the (re-)emergence of Europe in world politics is among the most significant novel features of international relations during the past two decades. Moreover, it is a development that should be capable of triggering an increased interest in properly understanding European foreign policy. The purpose of this chapter is to explore the potential consequences of making two seemingly small changes in terms of analytical perspective. The first ‘small’ change I have in mind is substituting a vertical with a horizontal perspective, i.e. instead of focusing endlessly on relations between member states and EU institutions, I focus on contending foreign policy traditions. The second ‘small’ change is to focus on the politics of foreign policy instead of on policy per se. The general aim of the chapter is to contribute to an explorative endeavour, an attempt to try out arguments, rather than summarise the conclusion of a multiple year research project.
