EU foreign policy scholarship shows a tendency to re-invent debates and conceptual discussions, which are then presented as “new” and unprecedented. A close reading of the literature from the past 40 years shows, however, that many fundamental issues were already present and discussed following the set-up of the European Political Cooperation and thus long before the institutional innovations of the Lisbon Treaty. In line with the overall conference theme, this panel thus investigates the resurrection of ideas in EU foreign policy-making.

This panel critically evaluates the current research agenda on the EU foreign policy-making and scrutinizes to what extent and in what manner qualitatively and quantitatively new challenges, processes and transformations have indeed emerged in this policy area. In order to grasp the complexity and width of EU foreign policy research, the panel deliberately brings together scholars covering different aspect of EU foreign policy: the relationship between trade and politics; the development of innovative EU cooperation methods in CSDP, the role of mindsets of officials; and the impact of transforming EU diplomatic cooperation in third countries. Taking a step back and putting the EU foreign policy transformation in a long-term perspective allows us to question those observed and allegedly new developments and to grasp long-term change and trends.