This book provides a critical and updated analysis of the nature of the EU's strategic partnership diplomacy, and of the partnerships themselves, in times of power shift and contestation. It links with key aspects of the EU's Global Strategy; it brings together a strong list of experts who work within a clear framework for analysis; and it deals not only with the substance of the policy but also with the ways in which the policy as a whole has emerged, is conducted and might develop in the future. In offering an inclusive set of case studies and diverse perspectives, this book aims to advance both conceptualization and analysis of the implementation of the established EU partnerships. The book highlights the notion of strategic partnership as a foreign policy instrument to support EU external action in a context of multilevel change and crisis; its policy dimension as a gradually separated, but not separable policy within the Union's external action; the institutional component given the emergence of SPs as a sort of self-preserving institutional platform allowing for denser and deeper cooperation in various policy areas; and the implications for the EU's self-conception as an international actor with a global identity and role.

Laura C. Ferreira-Pereira is Professor of Political Science and International Relations at the University of Minho and Visiting Professor at the University of São Paulo. She has published extensively on EU's Foreign Policy in several journals and edited volumes. She is a founding member of the European International Studies Association. Michael Smith is Honorary Professor in European Politics at the University of Warwick, and Emeritus Professor of European Politics at Loughborough University. He has published a large number of books, articles, chapters and papers on EU diplomacy, transatlantic relations and the EU's external action in general.