ABSTRACT
The European Union’s (EU) international relations have been subject to the force of both regional and global pressures which have been testing its resilience. The former’s response to several dramatic international developments, notably, the conflicts in Lebanon and Libya, the global financial crisis and the resulting strains in the Eurozone, the international air strikes interventions in Syria, the massive flow of irregular migrants and refugees, and the terrorists attacks in many countries, notably in France and Belgium during 2015 and 2016 – all have put the EU’s mixed bag of rhetorical claims, strategies and institutional structures, related to its external role, to the test. At the same time, the continual extension of the objectives, instruments and activities associated with the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) has enabled the EU to strive in the international arena as an autonomous, albeit limited, security provider, besides being a unique political actor with a sizeable leverage. The gradual consolidation of a partnership policy (Ferreira-Pereira & Vieira, 2016) founded mainly on the establishment of more or less institutionalized bilateral strategic partnerships with pivotal global and regional powers, such as China, Brazil and Russia, has contributed to this expansion, which unfolded significantly in the post-9/11 landscape. 1
