This book is a timely survey of the interplay between the EU's Common Foreign and Security Policy and the long-established national foreign policies of the Union's member states.

Five years or so ago many observers might have doubted that national foreign policies would continue to be of importance: to them it seemed inevitable that collective European positions were becoming ever more common and effective. Now the pendulum has swung back with a vengeance. Christopher Hill's book is a timely survey of the interplay between the European Union's "Common Foreign and Security Policy" and the long-established national foreign policies of the Union's Member-States. Each country in the Union gets a chapter to itself, as does the European Commission, whose role in the external relations of the Community steadily grew during the 1980's. Is a common foreign policy coming apart at the seams, or is it finally coming together? This book provides students of European Studies and International Relations with the information and analysis which will enable them to start answering these crucial questions.