This article explores `European foreign policy' as an important new empirical domain of foreign policy and also as a challenging vehicle for evaluating the current status of Foreign Policy Analysis (FPA). It begins by identifying the weaknesses of the dominant institutionalist mode of analysis of foreign policy activity in Europe which include a restrictive definition of `foreign policy' in this context. A case is then made for arguing that critics of FPA have underestimated the significance of developments in this sub-field of International Relations over the last 30 years and that `traditional' FPA can be adapted to aid the task of understanding the complex arena of European foreign policy defined here as constituted by three interrelated types of activity; Community, Union and National (member states') foreign policy. Having sketched out an analytical framework which demonstrates the continuing strengths of FPA, the article reflects upon what we might learn from this application about the weaknesses of this mode of analysis. Continuing problems notwithstanding, a revitalized FPA is revealed here which has the potential to incorporate both positivist and `post-positivist' approaches.
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