This book fosters critical reflection on Europe's place in a fast-changing global environment, covering the soft and hard facets of EU power along the spectrum of low politics-high politics.

Taking an innovative case-study approach, it provides a wide understanding of European Studies and International Relations beyond classical power considerations and addresses the crossroads of the two disciplines. Fundamentally, it addresses the specificity of the EU as an actor in International Relations and shows that the EU holds power and influence - creating opportunities for peace-making and peace-building - in a way classical IR theory would suggest it should not.

This book will be of key interest to scholars and students of European Studies, foreign policy analysis, International Relations, Security Studies, Political Science, History, and Economics.