"The institutional context in which the European Union conducts its external action - starting with the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) and the Common Security and Defence Policy (CDSP) - is complex, sometimes unclear, and highly fragmented. Moreover, the large number of players and formats for shaping, making and implementing decisions hardly facilitates a thorough understanding of the 'modus operandi' of the Union in this domain. This volume is intended to offer interested readers a portrait of how the European Union conducts diplomacy - as well as defence, development and other related policies. It offers an overview of how the EU has evolved as a foreign policy actor especially since the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty, and includes analyses of the main players in the EU system and their interplay, conveying both past dynamics and present trends".