European External Action: The Making Of Eu Diplomacy In Kenya (Critical Geopolitics)

European External Action provides a critical assessment of the practice of EU diplomacy in a key site of Africa-European relations and the global development industry - the Kenyan capital of Nairobi. It analyses how the EU positions itself through its newly established diplomatic corps, the European External Action Service (EEAS), and how it is perceived as a collective geopolitical actor by its external cooperation partners. Going beyond existing studies on EU policy making in Brussels and African-European relations more generally, this book explores in a novel way the conduct of external relations and perceptions of the EU - abroad. Based on institutional ethnography within the EU Delegation in Nairobi and research affiliation with the University of Nairobi, as well as interviews with leading individuals of Kenyan-European interaction, it analyses the practices, processes and perceptions through which EU diplomacy is enacted and realised in a strategic node of global North-South relations. In light of the EU's claim as a key "partner" for developing countries and its ambition to be a major player in global politics, European External Action thereby speaks not only to wider debates on the EU's role as a global and development actor, but also provides new insights in the internal dynamics and the making of external agency in and through EU diplomacy.

• | Author: Veit Bachmann
• | Publisher: Routledge
• | Publication Date: Jan 11, 2016
• | Number of Pages: 230 pages
• | Language: English
• | Binding: Hardcover/Political Science
• | ISBN-10: 1472423151
• | ISBN-13: 9781472423153