ABSTRACT
In spite of the current crisis and tendencies for re-nationalisation, the EU system of multi-level governance is seen as the world's most advanced system of power transfer via supra-national delegation. Taking the European External Action Service (EEAS) as a living laboratory for such processes, this chapter aims at advancing the inter-(sub)disciplinary debate of what institutional innovations in the field of international public administration (IPA) can tell us about the transformation of the state. It contains evidence from an exploratory analysis of practices and role enactment among EU foreign policy makers, approximating these by means of studying firstly contact patterns and information flows (attention paid to steering signals and instructions) and secondly the more informal concerns and considerations informing day-to-day decision-making processes. Hybrid administrative organisations, such as the EEAS, are frequently an expression of the search for a solution to diverging or conflicting demands for coordination and decision-making.
