Introduction

The Common Foreign and Security Policy of the European Union has been carried out in a rapidly changing policy and legal context. This book aims to explore a number of threads that underpin this context. In doing so, it will achieve the following objectives. First, it will analyse the intrinsic links (institutional, procedural, substantive) between the EU’s legal rules and procedures and the deeply politicized context within which these are applied in the evolving external action of the Union. Second, it will identify legal challenges to the implementation of an integrated approach to EU external action and to gauge their implications for both the legal and policy frameworks of the CFSP. Third, it will examine the extent to which the legal framework and practice in CFSP is governed by flexibility and contributes to the efficient and effective conduct of the Union’s external action. Finally, it will identify new trends emerging from the practice of CFSP.