Practising Eu Foreign Policy

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Practising EU foreign policy is a novel contribution to the literature on practice theory in International Relations. The book focuses on European Union (EU) practitioners' approaches to the Union's foreign policy towards Russia and other eastern neighbours. It offers a new methodology to capture practices through the analytical framework of Discursive International Relations by applying the Discursive Practice Model (DPM). The aim of the DPM, as a conceptual model, is to examine the micro-interactional features of practitioners' social action, fact and interest formulations, and agency. The model reveals what practitioners accomplish through their interactions and how these accomplishments lead to specific foreign policy practices. Drawing from data gathered at the European Council, the European Commission, and the European Parliament's Committee on Foreign Affairs (AFET), the study concludes that EU practitioners are concerned with a collective European identity and how Russia and other eastern neighbours fit within this 'Europeanness'. In addition, they are equally concerned with the normative and moral duties of the EU, as well as collective security interests when considering EU foreign policy in the region. This implies that practitioners are far more pragmatic when it comes to this policy area than previously assumed by the vast literature on Normative Power Europe. This pragmatism also suggests that the EU should be considered a multifaceted power rather than a normative one. Furthermore, the book argues that practitioners could be more cautious of evoking moral concerns when considering the eastern neighbours as they risk the EU being perceived as a moralising power rather than a moral authority in the region.