The European External Action Service: a melting pot of EU foreign policy practice

Abstract

The European External Action Service (EEAS), launched in 2010, has developed in EU foreign policy during a time of internal and external crises. The task of consolidating EU diplomacy has meant forging a new diplomatic service of practitioners from multiple EU institutions and member states. As such, it has become a melting pot of EU foreign policy that hosts knowledge and practices stemming from other organizational and national contexts in the evolution of a new institutional agency and diplomatic culture. Therefore, the EEAS lends itself to examining how processes and practices of everyday foreign policy shape a new institutional body and its role in EU foreign policy. Drawing on interviews with officials in Brussels, this chapter demonstrates the value of studying practices resulting from the multiple backgrounds, experiences and situated understandings of the EEAS officials.