A common (mis)perception about European foreign and security policy (EFP) is that it largely does not exist, and when it does exist that it usually underperforms. This perception stems to a large extent from a misunderstanding of the aims and tools of EFP (and perhaps a general lack of information about what EFP entails). However, it also reflects a puzzle, namely, how twenty-seven states with different and widely divergent interests, originating from twenty-seven different electorates and political processes, are to develop a coherent common foreign policy. Some scepticism seems justified. And yet, over the past two decades, the European Union has stabilized the region that was once adjacent to it through a highly successful policy of enlargement. It has also engaged in over twenty civilian and military operations not only in Europe but also in faraway theatres, such as Africa and South-East Asia. Hence the question arises: Under what conditions do the governments of the twenty-seven MS cooperate in common foreign policies?

This book seeks to answer this question and more generally the above-mentioned puzzle of cooperation in foreign policy-making by looking at economic interests and domestic political processes in the twenty-seven MS. It does so by evaluating the formation of Member States’ preferences in two of the most relevant and successful EU foreign policies to date: enlargement, and security and defence policies (ESDP/CSDP). When looking at enlargement, the focus is on Turkish accession, as it is the most contentious and the most likely case where domestic preferences will affect policy. If domestic politics do not play a role in this case, they are unlikely to do so in less salient ones. In security and defence policies (ESDP/CSDP) the focus is on civilian and mixed civilian-military missions as these form the vast majority of operations (only five have been purely military).

The argument: economic interest and domestic politics

The main argument advanced in this book is that policymakers respond to economic interest and to domestic pressures (from political parties, public opinion, and the mass media, inter alia) and that these in turn will affect cooperation between the twenty-seven MS in the two areas under study. This does not make a common foreign policy impossible, but it means that it is a complex process in which both negotiations between MS and domestic factors play a role.