The European Community and the World. A Historical Perspective

The European Community (EC) has taken on an outward-looking dimension over the years since its first establishment, developing structures and tools which are unprecedented in the history of international relations. The original signatories of the Treaty of Rome accepted the idea of a "little" Europe only as a first step towards something that would be much bigger and more powerful ; ultimately, they wanted to provide the EC with the international power necessary to realize the idea of the common market. It is not possible to properly define the EC's actions towards the rest of the world as "foreign policy" in every case and at every stage of its history ; nevertheless, the EC has undoubtedly always played a strong and significant international role, even if this role has been expressed in an unconventional way compared to the international system. This volume on European spaces and borders provides a meeting-point for a number of very different analyses and interpretations, from a variety of disciplinary, chronological and geopolitical perspectives, and in so doing develops a rich and complex debate.