An Alternative Theoretical Approach to EU Foreign Policy

Events in the vicinity of the European Union are constantly challenging the EU's foreign policy, but complex internal governance processes have been hampering the EU from responding coherently. This analysis of the Northern Dimension Initiative considers whether the EU is compensating for this dilemma by adopting an innovative network governance strategy to integrate those external actors in the European North who can bring complementary resources to the policy-making processes. The formulation and execution of EU foreign policy may thus be alleviated, and the lack of internal problem-solving capacity does not automatically lead to failure in foreign policy-making.