The Future of European Political Cooperation : Essays on Theory and Practice

This collected volume of essays focuses on two complementary themes: firstly, the theoretical approaches to the study of European Political Cooperation; and secondly, the empirical analysis of EPC activity. The volume does not argue one particular approach to the study of EPC, but rather presents competing, and often conflicting, theoretical perspectives. At the empirical level, a future research agenda is suggested and it is argued that EPC research should become comparative in nature. Has the Single Act really changed European Political Cooperation (EPC)? Words, when skillfully used, can mean a lot in the world of lawyers. Thus, the fairly general heading of Title III of the Single Act - 'Treaty Provisions on European Cooperation in the Sphere of Foreign Policy' - may be seen as encapsulating both the importance and the limits of the changes introduced by that part of the Act. The reference to 'Treaty provisions' suggests that the 'High Contracting Parties' - as, significantly, the member states of the European Community are called in that part of the Act - intended to give legal value to the commitments therein contained. At the same time, the use of an expression like 'cooperation in the sphere of foreign policy', which was preferred to the more integrated (and Community-like) 'common foreign policy', clearly indicates that their intention was not to alter radically the set of procedures which have characterised EPC from its inception. One could therefore argue that we find in the very heading of Title III the essence of the changes contained in that part of the Act: a formal 'legalisation' of a process which was not hitherto regarded as legally binding, but no substantive transformation of its functioning, if one excludes the long awaited creation of a Secretariat Introduction: Epc Theory And Empiricism / Martin Holland -- European Political Cooperation And The Realist Paradigm / Alfred E. Pijpers -- The Ec, Epc And The Decline Of Bipolarity / Panos Tsakaloyannis -- European Political Cooperation : A World Systems Perspective / Stephen George -- Analysing Epc : The Case For Two-tier Analysis / Simon Bulmer -- Western Europe's Presence In The Contemporary International Arena / David Allen And Michael Smith -- Epc And The Single Act : From Soft Law To Hard Law? / Renaud Dehousse And Joseph H.h. Weiler -- Epc After The Single European Act : Towards A European Foreign Policy Via Treaty Obligations? / Wolfgang Wessels -- The Twelve's Dialogue With Third Countries : Progress Towards A Communauté D'action? / Elfriede Regelsberger -- Sanctions As An Epc Instrument / Martin Holland. Edited By Martin Holland. Five Of The Nine Chapters Were Originally Presented At The Inaugural European Community Studies Association Conference Held In May 1989 At George Mason University, Usa--p. Viii. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Front Matter....Pages i-xi Introduction....Pages 1-7 European Political Cooperation and the Realist Paradigm....Pages 8-35 The EC, EPC and the Decline of Bipolarity....Pages 36-51 European Political Cooperation: a World Systems Perspective....Pages 52-69 Analysing European Political Cooperation: The Case for Two-tier Analysis....Pages 70-94 Western Europe’s Presence in the Contemporary International Arena....Pages 95-120 EPC and the Single Act: from Soft Law to Hard Law?....Pages 121-142 EPC After the Single European Act: Towards a European Foreign Policy via Treaty Obligations?....Pages 143-160 The Twelve’s Dialogue with Third Countries — Progress Towards a Communauté d’ action?....Pages 161-179 Sanctions as an EPC Instrument....Pages 180-198 Back Matter....Pages 199-209 Since World War II much has been said about the possibility and impossibility of a common Western European foreign and military policy, both by academics and others, but theory formation on this phenomenon has always lagged behind.