Europe's Foreign and Security Policy: The Institutionalization of Cooperation. By Michael E. Smith. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004. 308p. $80.00 cloth, $28.99 paper.

Michael Smith asks and answers a question about the foreign policy of the European Union: How do we explain its surprising growth and development over the past 30 years despite the many obstacles? The question is timely for scholars and practitioners. For practitioners, the EU is beginning to matter more in international politics as it finally begins to operationalize the European Security and Defense Policy (ESDP) in the Balkans and Africa. For scholars, a theory of European foreign policy has not enjoyed the attention paid by theorists to internal economic integration (neofunctionalism), interstate bargains struck at intergovernmental conferences (realism, liberal intergovernmentalism), and the impact of ideas, preferences, identities, and interests (constructivism) that influence institutions.