ABSTRACT
And some have greatness thrust upon them: managing external policy Constitution-making is primarily about mapping power in a polity and establishing the contractual bonds of mutual obligation between people and government. But constitutional politics is also about promoting the polity’s standing and confirming its legal status in the wider world.1 The EU is no exception, though it has not always been concerned about its international role. The Community’s founders were preoccupied far more with laying the foundations of an efficient common market than with its place in international affairs, and in the early years foreign affairs in the usual sense was excluded from its policy remit. Over time, the idea of the EU as an international actor has acquired greater salience. Even ‘common markets’ trade with third parties, and commercial matters have an international dimension. Trade policy was never confined to just the Common Market, it always had a significant international dimension, and especially so in today’s world, and the same can be said of the Union’s policy on international development.
