Thinking Strategically about the EU’s External Action

Twenty years after the Treaty of Maastricht created the Common Foreign and Security Policy, Europeans face the risk of being marginalised on the international scene. The euphoric period following the fall of the Soviet Union – when it seemed obvious that the world would westernise and that politics would become more democratic and economies more liberal – has ended.

Long-term economic shifts underway since the 2000s – the rise of ever more economically potent and politically assertive powers – have translated into a gradual yet relentless reversal of global relationships of power. 2012 will be remembered as the turning point when the production of the rising economies exceeded that of old industrialised countries. With this shift of economic power – mainly towards Asia and soon towards Africa – European influence and regulatory capacity on the global level are increasingly questioned.

In this time of complex evolutions and shifting tectonic plates, the ‘Think Global – Act European’ project brings together 16 think tanks and over 40 experts to examine the EU’s external action