EU Foreign Policy and the Politics of Information

Abstract

The politics of information is central to foreign policy in the EU. Foreign policy is the domain of a restricted set of decision-makers, more markedly so than in other policy areas due to the character of foreign policy-making.¹ Secrecy and crises, landmarks of foreign policy, magnify the value of information and knowledge. International cooperation has thus often been seen as a way to overcome information challenges and European cooperation on matters of foreign policy is a textbook example of what such a strategy could deliver. Amid the set of studies presented in this volume, a focus on EU foreign policy therefore highlights the importance of information for cooperation on matters of foreign policy across Europe, as well as the conflicts that the EU institutional framework and its informational biases have led to.