Includes bibliographical references (pages 217-241) and index.

Contents: Foreword, Pierre Vimont; Introduction, Mario Telo; Part I The EU: a Controversial Global Political Actor Within an Emergent Multipolar World: The EU and the evolving shift of power in global governance, Andrew Gamble; The EU: a civilian power's diplomatic action after the Lisbon Treaty. Bridging internal complexity and international convergence, Mario Telo; The Lisbon Treaty, CSDP and the EU as a security actor, Jolyon Howorth. Part II After the Lisbon Treaty: the Common Foreign Security Policy and the European External Action Service: The European External Action Service: can a new institution improve the coherence of the EU foreign policy?, Christian Lequesne; The EEAS and EU executive actors within the foreign policy-cycle, Caterina Carta; The challenge of coherence and consistency in EU foreign policy, Hartmut Mayer. Part III Assessing CFSP and the EU's External Relations in Action: Near and Far Abroad: The European neighbourhood policy and the challenge of the Mediterranean southern rim, Richard Gillespie; Inter-regionalism as a coherent and intelligible instrument in the EU foreign policy toolbox: a comparative assessment, Frederik Ponjaert; The EU strategic partnerships: process and purposes, Giovanni Grevi; The efficacy of post-Lisbon Treaty EU's external actions and China-EU strategic partnership, Chen Zhimin; The efficiency of EU external action and the institutional evolution of EU-Japan political relations, Hidetoshi Nakamura; The efficiency of the EU's external actions and the EU-India relationship, Ummu Salma Bava; Bibliography; Index.

A very timely and topical volume concerned with the impact of the Lisbon Treaty on the European Union's (EU) capacity to further develop a distinctive foreign policy in accordance with the various policy instruments necessary to fulfill its role as a global actor.