The Foreign Policy Making Process

Abstract

European foreign policy is not a contemporary innovation; since its creation in the 1950s the Community has exhibited an external role. Indeed, the architect of the Community, Jean Monnet, explicitly included political union and a single foreign policy in his original idea of a federated EC. Yet the question of foreign policy making has often remained shrouded by contention and confusion. As a leading commentator and practitioner has argued, EPC was a “closed” system, not open to normal EC scrutiny because in origin EPC “was a private club, operated by diplomats for diplomats, and some of that same ambiance has persisted to this day” (Nuttall, 1992, p. 11). The legitimacy of EC foreign policy making has not been challenged, but its scope and application have regularly been in dispute. In part, the 1957 Treaty of Rome offers an explanation: at one level its priorities emphasized economic integration and intra-European interests; however, this apparent inward economic exclusivity of the Treaty was a superficial veneer which belied a more comprehensive global role for the nascent Community.