Rebecca Adler-Nissen, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Copenhagen, Denmark Frauke Austermann, is Lecturer and Head of Campus at the International School of Management, Cologne, and Research Associate at ESSCA School of Management, LUNAM University, France Rosa Balfour, Director, Europe in the World, European Policy Centre (EPC), Brussels, Belgium Jozef Bátora, Associate Professor and Director of the Institute of European Studies and International Relations at Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia Mai'a K. Davis Cross, Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at Northeastern University, USA Geert De Baere, Assistant Professor of International Law and EU Law at the Faculty of Law, Leuven Centre for Global Governance Studies, University of Leuven, Belgium Simon Duke, Professor, European Institute of Public Administration (EIPA), Maastricht, Netherlands Sanderijn Duquet, Fellow at the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO),Belgium Ana Mar Fernández Pasarín, Associate Professor in Politics and Public Administration, Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain Bruno Hanses, EU official with extensive experience of European foreign and security policy Niklas Helwig, Senior Research Fellow, Finnish Institute of International Affairs, Helsinki, Finland Ana E. Juncos, Lecturer in European Politics at the School of Sociology, Politics and International Studies, University of Bristol, UK Katie Verlin Laatikainen, Associate Professor of Political Science, Adelphi University, New York, USA Lars Erik Lundin, Distinguished Associate Fellow, Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, Sweden Heidi Maurer, Assistant Professor, European Studies at the Department of Politics, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Maastricht University, The Netherlands Frédéric Mérand, Associate Professor of Political Science and Director of CÉRIUM, the University of Montreal Centre for International Studies, Canada Zuzana Murdoch,Post-doctoral Research Fellow, University of Bremen, Germany Tereza Novotná, Post-Doctoral Researcher, Institute for European Studies, Université libre de Bruxelles, Belgium Cesare Onestini, Deputy Head of the European Union Delegation to India Karolina Pomorska, Assistant Professor, Maastricht University, The Netherlands, and Research Associate, Department of Politics and International Studies, University of Cambridge, UK Kristi Raik, Senior Research Fellow, Finnish Institute of International Affairs (FIIA) and Adjunct Professor, University of Turku, Finland Kolja Raube, Senior Researcher, Leuven Centre for Global Governance Studies, Belgium David Spence, Visiting Fellow, European Institute of the London School of Economics, UK Isabelle Tannous, Senior Information Research Specialist, German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP), Berlin, Germany Jarle Trondal, Professor of Public Administration, University of Agder, Norway Ramses A. Wessel, Professor of International and European Institutional Law and Co-Director of the Centre for European Studies at the University of Twente, The Netherlands Alison Weston, Head of Division with the Operations Directorate of the EU Military Staff, European External Action Service Jan Wouters, Full Professor of International Law and Jean Monnet Chair ad personam, Director, Leuven Centre for Global Governance Studies Institute for International Law, KU Leuven, Belgium

Although the broad theme of the institutional structure of the EU's foreign policy machinery and its evolution have been addressed by numerous works (Smith, 2004; Nuttall, 1992, 2000; Tonra and Christiansen, 2004, etc.), fewer works have looked at the historical evolution of the EU's diplomatic service from an institutional perspective (Viñas, 2004; Carta, 2012). The former offered an insightful recognition of both the institutional set up of the Commission's diplomatic service and of its ability to frame policies and act in third party states. The latter presented an analytical framework to study diplomacy based on four levels: the international level, the actors entitled to play the diplomatic game, their internal organization and the diplomats, that is, the actual officials who negotiate and act on behalf of the entity they represent.A fair amount of edited volumes have just been published (Telo' and Ponjaert) or are in the pipeline (Smith and Vanhoonaker; Koops and Macaj). These projects have a different focus than the proposed edited volume. Smith and Vanhoonacher focus on the EU diplomatic action in regional bilateral and multilateral settings; Telo' and Ponjaert explore the relation between the institutional setting and the action of the EU in both its near and far abroad; Koops and Macaj examine the nature, approach and impact of the European Union as a diplomatic actor in the fields of security, human rights, climate change and environmental policies as well as trade and finance. In this regard, the proposed book's attempt to take a comprehensive look at the EU's institutional machinery should be welcome. For surely, the setting up of the EEAS means this is both an increasingly relevant topic (from a policy perspective) as well a subject that merits greater analytical and academic attention.Like Carta's monograph, the proposed book has an institutional focus, where the word 'institution' assumes the twin meaning of study of the EU's institutional developments and analysis of the institution of diplomacy. In that the book represents an updated contribution that differs from the forthcoming contribution of Smith and Vanoonacker, but also - at least partially - from another edited book edited by¿Mario Telò and Frederik Ponjaert ('The EU's Foreign Policy:¿What Kind of Power and Diplomatic Action?', Ashgate, 2013). The aforementioned contributions do take in consideration the institutional aspects of the EU diplomatic system, but have a stronger focus on foreign policy.

List of Tables
List of Figures
Notes on Contributors
Introduction: The EEAS as a Catalyst of Diplomatic Innovation; Jozef Bátora and David Spence
1. Theorizing the EU''s Diplomatic Service: Rational Player or Social Body?; Rebecca Adler-Nissen
PART I: THE NEW SETTING OF EU DIPLOMACY: problems and Prospects for the European External Action Service
2. The EEAS and its epistemic communities: the challenge of hybridism; David Spence
3. A hybrid service: organising efficient EU foreign policy; Cesare Onestini
4. The High Representative of the Union: the quest for leadership in EU foreign policy; Niklas Helwig
5. The Advance of a European Executive Order in Foreign Policy? Recruitment Practices in the European External Action Service (EEAS); Zuzana Murdoch and Jarle Trondal
6. The EEAS, EU External Assistance and Development Aid: Institutional Dissonance or Inter-service Harmony?; Isabelle Tannous
7. Democratic accountability and EU diplomacy: the EEAS and the role of the European Parliament; Kolja Raube
PART II: THE EEAS AND INTERNATIONAL LAW
8. Unus inter plures? The EEAS, the Vienna Convention and international diplomatic practice; Jan Wouters and Sanderijn Duquet
9. EU Law and the EEAS: Of Complex Competences and Constitutional Consequences; Geert De Baere and Ramses A. Wessel
PART III: EFFECTIVE MULTILATERALISM: EU DELEGATIONS TO INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
10. The EU Delegation in New York: A Debut in High Political Drama; Katie Laatikainen
11. From the Convention to Lisbon: external competence and the uneasy transition for Geneva Delegations; David Spence
12. Effective multilateralism after Lisbon: the added value of the EEAS and the EU delegation in Vienna; Lars Erik Lundin
PART IV: BILATERALISM and EUROPEAN DIPLOMATIC CAPACITY
13. National adaptation and survival in a changing European diplomacy; Rosa Balfour and Kristi Raik
14. Europe in America: an upgraded EU delegation in a reinforced system of European diplomatic coordination; Heidi Maurer
15. Representing the EU in China: European Bilateral Diplomacy in a Competitive Diplomatic Environment; Frauke Austermann
16. Structural Diplomacy and foreign policy: the Case of the EU Delegation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo; Bruno Hanses and David Spence
PART V: ORGANIZING FOR A COMPREHENSIVE DIPLOMATIC APPROACH
17. The EEAS and Crisis Management: the Organisational Challenges of a Comprehensive Approach; Allison Weston and Frederic Mérand
18. The Public Diplomacy Role of the EEAS: crafting a Resilient Image for Europe; Mai''a K. Davis Cross
19. Towards a EU Consular policy?; Ana Mar Fernandez-Pasarin
PART VI: HUMAN RESOURCES AND DIPLOMATIC TRAINING
20. Attitudes, identities and esprit de corps in the EEAS; Ana Juncos and Karolina Pomorska
21. Women in the EEAS: another Post-Westphalia Change?; Tereza Novotná
22. Preparing the Future: Diplomatic Training in the EU; Simon Duke
Index                                                                                       

This book questions whether the institutions and practices of the emerging EU diplomatic system conform to established standards of the state-centric diplomatic order; or whether practice is paving the way for innovative, even revolutionary, forms of diplomatic organisation.